Alabama Fall Foliage Report

As we are now in the middle of October and growing deeper into the Autumn season, many folks are waiting for Fall to start revealing its beauty. As the days are becoming shorter, some patchy, dull color can now be found across much of the area this week.

By next week, more moderate Fall color begins to creep a bit further south off the Blue Ridge Mountains into the higher elevations of north Georgia, middle Tennessee, and perhaps some of extreme northern Alabama. Extreme drought conditions and anomalous warm/cold weather can add more stress to the leaves, causing them to dry up and fall off early. This year, we’re heading into peak foliage with dry conditions and cooler/seasonal weather, hopefully leading to typical color brightness/viewing conditions across the region. However, this won’t rival some of our prettiest Fall seasons such as 2021.

Cooler weather has now entered central Alabama and with many areas seeing their first frost of the season tonight, this will help to kickstart those Fall colors. Climatologically, we normally see those Autumn colors peaking in the first couple weeks of November. For northern Alabama, expect those trees to reach peak foliage in early November while central and southern Alabama will have to wait until the middle of November before those oranges, yellows, and reds really begin to flourish.

As usual, higher elevations (above 1000 ft) will see those colors changing first before they slowly creep into the valleys. Be sure to check out one of your local Alabama state parks for finding some of the prettiest colors!

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