Fall Color Tracker: Near-peak foliage, sunny skies make for prime leaf-peeping weekend - WSYX

I enjoyed Kymberlee O’Brien’s explanation (“There’s a scientific reason leaf peeping feels so good,” Opinion, Oct. 20) of why looking at fall foliage can feel restorative. I would add that autumn engages more than just our eyes. As I walked thought Mt. Auburn Cemetery last weekend, leaves were crunching underfoot. I could smell their earthy, damp scent as fungi decomposed them. Along with the vivid colors, these sounds, textures, and smells are autumn in New England. A 2024 Science Advances article identified smell as an important, yet understudied way we experience nature. As O’Brien rightly notes, researchers have not tested every link between nature and well-being. There is also something about autumn’s brisk temperatures and falling leaves that evokes a sense of renewal, as though the changing season offers an opportunity for fresh beginnings. Still, her article reminds us to appreciate not just the colors, but the sounds, textures, and smells of the season. Get College TownA weekly newsletter packed with insights about higher ed from Globe journalist Hilary Burns.

This weekend will be another very nice October weekend featuring nearly wall-to-wall sunshine and seasonably cool or mild temperatures, depending on your perspective, with little frost. Technically, this is the final full weekend of October because next weekend, Halloween falls on a Saturday and then Sunday begins November. There’s been a big storm out in the ocean this week that will be long gone by Friday as we begin the weekend and high pressure builds in from Canada. This time of year, an air mass with high pressure up north is often chilly and temperatures will be a little bit below average on Friday, staying mostly in the low 50s. The forecast morning low temperature across Boston for the next week. Boston GlobeSaturday: Plenty of sunshine, calmer windsThere will be plenty of sunshine both days this weekend and the wind will be generally quite light. Because high pressure will be cresting near or over New England, the gradient will be almost non-existent and that’s one of the reasons for calmer winds. Something called “warm air advection,” which is basically what it sounds like, when warm air starts moving into an area, is going to start taking overon Saturday.

Kymberlee O’Brien is an assistant professor of psychology at William James College and founder of NeuraLight Consulting. Every October, New England’s back roads fill with people who have passed thousands of perfectly good trees to reach the right ones. They crawl along at 15 miles per hour and queue for the same overlook as everyone else. Vermont’s tourism department estimates that 2.5 million visitors spend about $500 million during its foliage season each year. Nobody plans a trip like that for something they merely like. As a psychophysiologist, I’m often asked for the brain science behind the pull. The honest answer starts with an admission: To my knowledge, no study has put people in a brain scanner while they look at autumn foliage. What we have is more modest and more fascinating. Start with color. Psychologists Stephen Palmer and Karen Schloss’s ecological valence theory proposes that we like a color in proportion to how we feel about the things we associate with it. Ripe fruit, firelight, and the harvest table all carry warm associations, and so do the colors they’re made of. Palmer, Schloss, and their colleagues then tested people across the calendar.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The 2026 fall foliage season is here. Drought was a major factor behind shorter and less vibrant fall foliage in the Northeast in both 2024 and 2025. However, much of the region has been able to overcome drought conditions this year, except in parts of New Hampshire and Maine. "Last year, the trees went to bed thirsty. And when we woke up this spring, the snowpack that had stayed on the ground all winter went into the soil slowly," said Jim Salge, a fall foliage reporter for Yankee Magazine. "We have really nice, healthy forests now. "For much of the Northeast, peak fall foliage occurs in early October. However, closer to the coast, peak conditions typically unfold later in the month. The autumnal equinox officially arrived on Sept. 22. Peak fall color is spreading across New York State this weekend, with leaves at or near peak in much of the Capital-Saratoga, Greater Niagara, Chautauqua-Allegheny and Hudson Valley regions. The Finger Lakes and the central and southern Thousand Islands are also near peak or at peak.

by Sam WolosonFri, October 23, 2026 at 5:32 AMColor along Birch Run Road in Michaux State Forest, which spans across Cumberland, Adams and York counties. (A. Shull/DCNR)HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) — If you've been considering a camping trip or going on a hike in central Pennsylvania, this may be the best week to do it. During the week of Oct. 22-28, the area will be in peak foliage or approaching peak foliage, according to reports from Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). Cumberland, Franklin, Juniata, Mifflin and Perry counties are reporting peak color, according to DCNR. Forestry staff said now is the best time to make a trip to Buchanan State Forest, Tuscarora State Forest or Bald Eagle State Forest. On the southeastern side of the state, including Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties, leaves are approaching peak color. The western half of the state has passed its peak and is starting to decline, DCNR said, The season is already over in Wayne and Susquehanna counties, which are on the northeastern tip of the state.

The top spot went to Québec City, with only one European destination making the cut.