Roadsides and wetland edges turn first, and the woods behind them run a few days later.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecast
Around Congaree National Park Richland County holds most of the park and is still green today. Calhoun County, to the south, is 1 day behind. Sumter County, to the east, is 1 day behind.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Cs2afforestation camera, 33 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 3 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
The place
The largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the Southeast. Some of these trees are 170 feet tall, and the canopy is so dense the boardwalk below feels like dusk at noon. Then in late May, the synchronous fireflies show up. Thousands of them pulsing in unison after dark, blinking on and off together like the whole forest is breathing light.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Monday 9 November to Tuesday 10 November
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
What turns
water oak, blackgum, sweetgum, red maple, bald cypress
Entrance
No entrance fee
What turns, and when
water oak17%
blackgum17%
sweetgum17%
red maple17%
bald cypress16%
willow oak8%
Also named across South Carolina, outside what the canopy read measures here: Tulip Poplar, Hickory, White Oak.
The Blue Ridge escarpment in the northwest corner produces mountain color that drops off dramatically into the Piedmont, with maples and tulip poplars providing the best displays.
Across South Carolina as a whole: Mid-to-late October in the mountains, late November in the Midlands.
This forecast is built from the species that stand here, their elevation and this September’s weather, and corrected in season by cameras, foresters and our own crew. We score it here against 7 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 13 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made
