When will leaves change colors in North Carolina? FOX8 Chief Meteorologist Van Denton shares fall foliage forecast
(WGHP) — Sunday marked the official start of fall. Of course, for many of us, that means football everything, pumpkin spice, jack-o-lanterns and some cool weather too. But we're also going to see that foliage out there.
Using the map below, you can see the color shade based on elevation, and we've got a big range across the mountains of North Carolina.
That green section is the Piedmont. We always have our best color within a few days of Halloween, so toward the end of October into early November, we see the good color.
Oct. 7 through Oct. 14 is when high elevations will start to see great color. There are some areas around 6,000 feet that even start seeing it earlier right around the beginning of October, but a lot of those places are more limited and harder to get to.
Oct. 14 to Oct. 21 is when the colors are peaking between 3,000 and 4,000 feet in elevation. There's a lot more of our mountains, especially on the parkway, where a lot of people like to drive that are between 3,000 and 4.000 feet.
But where is the place to go? Throughout the early part of October, the best place to go is where the elevation is 4,000 feet and above. If you're going to the Blue Ridge Parkway, you can take 421 West out of the Triad and go southbound on the parkway and find great color.
One of the first spots that shows good color is the Linn Cove viaduct that's at milepost 304 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
On the parkway, anywhere between Oct. 7, Oct. 12 and Oct. 13, it's always gorgeous.
If you're going from the middle of the month to the end of the month, you'll want to go northbound from 421 on the parkway. Be aware there are some detours and some bridge repairs. On some of the other country roads around West Jefferson, it's beautiful.
The Triad average is around Oct. 30, and the peak colors are near Halloween.
As we go through the fall here in the Piedmont, we start thinking about freezing temperatures. Our earliest snowfall on record was on Nov. 9 and Nov. 10, 1968. Our biggest was over 14 inches in the fall of 1930.
