Use This Map to Plan Your Fall Foliage Trip Before Everything Is Booked
So, for the second year in a row, you had to cancel your summer vacation due to a pandemic. For a while this year looked really good – given the vaccine rollout, the drop in cases and all – but the Delta option had other plans (ruining ours).
Now, you may be thinking of an autumn trip, admire the colorful leaves and stay in a cozy, secluded vacation home. Well, if that’s the case, you’re not alone, and someone else might be keeping an eye on the booth that you added to VRBO a few months ago.
But if fall foliage is an integral part of your journey, it can be difficult to determine when a particular area is going to peak. Fortunately, there isan interactive map that uses data to predict when different parts of the country will be most colorful. Here’s what you need to know.
How to use the 2021 Fall Foliage Forecast Map
Again, this interactive map is courtesy of David Angotti , statistician and founder of SmokyMountains.com . It uses historical temperature and precipitation data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as predicted temperatures and precipitation for this year, as well as historical peak foliage trends, to predict when fall foliage will reach its brightest peak in any given year. point of the continental United States. in 2021.
The map is intuitive: select a date using the slider at the bottom of the map and see where foliage peaks this week. For example, if you select September 6, you will see a sheet forecast for the week of September 6 to 12.
Of course, like any other type of weather forecast, max sheet magnification forecasts will never be completely accurate, but Angotti and his team have been doing this for almost a decade, so they were able to tweak their algorithm more precisely. of the year.
As you can imagine, Angotti says that the vast majority of people who use the map do it to plan their fall trip or to check when the foliage will fall outside their house – but some people have been particularly creative.
“Some of our favorite [use-cases for the map] include a Northeast bride changing her outdoor wedding date, a director planning a movie on location based on our predictions, and even an elementary school teacher planning a trip to a nearby state forest. “He tells Lifehacker by email.