I just came back from Shenandoah NP and it's almost as green as summer up there. My records indicate the the teen weekend of October is typically the peak time for fall foliage along Skyline Drive (and the AT).
Here is a 2018 fall foliage map and it's totally wrong: https://smokymountains.com/fall-foliage-map/
I'd like to head down to Erwin next weekend. How's it looking down there?
I've always wondered what specifically controls why some years have better color than others. I had read that lots of summer rain contributes to better color. Now we know warm temps in September really do have an effect. Hopefully everything just won't brown out and fall off.
Thought I'd start a thread to handle this issue.....