Leaf Watch 2026: Cooler Nights Set the Stage for Color

Meteorologist Joanne Feldman has another look at our forecast and heading into this weekend. Joanne, we really are going to get a case of weather whiplash for sure. We are, but if you've been eager for it to feel like fall and start to look a little more like fall, well, this is your weekend for that change to happen. It's time for our Leaf Watch update. Thanks to information from the Georgia Forestry Commission, they give us this information to share with you here early every Thursday morning. And as we're looking at the various regions in far north Georgia, The most change that's happening in the highest elevations is about 20%. So for northwest Georgia, expecting that the peak color is actually not going to be until the first two weeks of November. But we're kind of on schedule here. North central Georgia, late October, early November, and the last week of October to the first week of November in the north Georgia mountains. I mentioned a moment ago impacts from Isaias were actually beneficial. They got rain, so the drought stress on the leaves is reduced. And the fact that we'll have some cooler overnight temperatures this weekend, that's going to start making this fall color pop. And this is a packed weekend for fall festivals. In northeast Georgia, you got Fall Fest, a Halloween Haunted Hike in White County, the Clarksville Fall Festival, Gold Rush Days in Dahlonega, the Georgia Apple Festival, all happening this weekend, the Sorghum in the Mountains Festival in Blairsville. And then in northwest Georgia, got a few events, too. The One More Ride Cruise-In in Trenton, the Sequoia Quilt Show in Somerville, and the Black Bear Festival in Chatsworth. I love this time of year. It's a great time of year to get out. This is a peek at some of the colors so far, again, from the Georgia Forestry Commission. The sourwoods are producing that nice red color you're seeing there at Black Rock Lake in Rabun County. And then we look into Dade County, some of the yellow is starting to pop out there in northwest Georgia. But.