2020 New England Fall Foliage Update | An Early Peak Heads for Southern New England in a ‘Briefly Beautiful’ Year

The wave of bright but brief fall color will be moving south over the next couple of weeks across southern New England.
Credit: Jim Salge For all of New England but particularly for the southern portion, you were concerned about tropical storms thwarting color or bringing down the leaves. How’s it looking on that front? We have definitely been lucky and dodged a few bullets with passing storms and storm remnants. And fortunately the recent windstorm that impacted northern New England had much less effect farther south. Is New England still in the midst of a drought, and how does that impact how much color we could see? Yes, and it is getting worse. We did see some rain in the past week but not nearly enough to make up for months of predominantly dry weather. Boston saw less than an inch of rainfall in all of September, and more than half of that fell in the last few days. But the impact on color isn’t always bad. Drought paired with cool conditions will kick-start bright, brief color. This is why northern New England popped so quickly and dramatically this year, and we are hopeful that similar seasonably cool weather will do the same in southern New England. Otherwise, there will be a bit more browning of the leaves before they fall.

So, what are the predictions for southern New England? In southern New England, we are seeing extremely varied conditions, but overall we’re expecting another wave of early, brief, and bright color, with much of that emerging in the next week, especially away from the coast. The Berkshires and northern Massachusetts are seeing mostly good color now, which should make for a bright long weekend of leaf peeping coming up. Farther south in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and especially toward the coast, the trees are still largely green. This isn’t unusual for the first week of October, but we continue to expect that these places will peak a week or two ahead of schedule this year, which brings the calendar back from peak conditions in late October and early November, to peak taking place completely in the month of October.

Have there been any surprises this year? The fact that much of northern New England reached peak at the same time, and how quickly the leaves turned, was really shocking. When the capital of New Hampshire, the White Mountains, and the Great North Woods all see peak color at the same time, it’s extremely unusual. And it was equally shocking to see how fast the brightest colors came down. In Pittsburg, a town at New Hampshire’s northern tip, it went from mostly green to mostly sticks in a week. Usually, you have a few weeks to enjoy the transition of color. Another surprising thing is to hit peak and then go back to green. The early color of birches and red maples has fallen, but late maples, oaks, and beeches have yet to turn. It’s really odd. Whether and how this pattern continues into southern New England will be very interesting to see, for the science and understanding of how foliage progresses across the region. But overall, it was a briefly beautiful year. Stunning, and too fast. For the remainder of the season, keep following our “Where to See Fall Foliage This Weekend” post (updated every Thursday!) for the latest from Jim Salge, plus one great travel pick for the weekend.

More New England Foliage:

New England Peak Fall Foliage Map

New England State Fall Foliage Guides | Best Towns, Drives, Activities & More

Best New England Hikes for Kids at Every Age

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