Fall foliage: How to track fall colors in Pennsylvania, New Jersey

PHILADELPHIA - Do you have a lot of leaves in your yard already? For that, you can blame the dry weather.

The Department of Agriculture keeps an eye on where it's dry in the United States, and the whole Delaware Valley is much drier than usual. Some neighborhoods are experiencing the beginning of a drought.

"We're seeing some early leaf drop just because of how dry it's been," said Ryan Reed, from the Pennsylvania Forest Service.

As with any living thing, trees experience stress from lack of water. When trees are stressed from lack of water, they shed some leaves earlier than usual because the leaves can't be supported. If we were heading into fall with a lot of rainy days, the leaves would remain on the trees for a longer period of time.

Reed says we'll still have plenty of color in late October and early November. He's not worried about the recent dryness because he believes that our trees have adapted to handle dry stretches this time of year.

So, are you ready to see some of autumn's beauty? Where should you go for the best fall color?

Right now, head to the northern part of Pennsylvania. That's where the leaves turn first, and they're already seeing some color in that area, including north of Williamsport, at the Grand Canyon of PA.

The last week of September and first week of October is when color peaks in northern Pa. You can get a feel of that looking back at the last few years of fall color reports.

Closer to home, we get the best color in south New Jersey in mid to late October.

The same is true for southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware. We often have a lot of color the third week in October, stretching into the last week of October.

If the lack of rain trend continues as October nears, plan on the third week in October to have the best color this year.

By the way, did you see that Bucks County was named the best place in America for fall color?

You can keep up with the latest reports of fall color on this interactive map of the country.

Right now, Explorefall.com is showing some color across the northern half of Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey.

Every Thursday, beginning September 26, you can keep up with Pennsylvania's fall color reports. In the meantime, the 2023 reports are still posted, in case you want to get a feel for the best state parks to visit.