When Wisconsin fall colors are expected to peak in 2025

When can you expect peak fall color in your favorite Wisconsin destinations?

Travel Wisconsin’s Fall Color Report, which offers weekly updates in season for many state locations, suggests peak color around the second week of October for some northern destinations such as Ashland; the third week of October for Door County and Eagle River; the fourth week of October for Lake Geneva, Oshkosh and Milwaukee; and the last week of October for Dodge County and Oconomowoc.

The Fall Color Report is compiled from more than 100 observers and includes reports from every county in Wisconsin. As leaves turn colorful, most observers update their reports weekly.

This early in the leafy season, estimates of when leaf color will peak are based largely on the historical record, so it’s important to remember that past performance does not necessarily indicate future results.

Taking a broad national view, ExploreFall.com’s Fall Foliage Map 2025 estimates peak color in the northern third of Wisconsin, such as Bayfield, circa Oct. 7; across the state’s central third, such as Marshfield and Wausau, around Oct. 18; and in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and southern Wisconsin by Oct. 28.

SmokyMountains.com’s Fall Foliage Prediction Map for 2025 estimates peak color circa Oct. 7 for far northern Wisconsin, peak color across most of the upper two-thirds of the state the week of Oct. 14, and peak color in Milwaukee and southern Wisconsin circa Oct. 21.

“The most brilliant leaf displays follow a period of warm days filled with sunshine and cool nights,” wrote natural resources educator Julie Crick in an article posted by Michigan State University Extension.

Soil moisture also plays a role in leaf color, Crick wrote. Drought can delay the onset of color, while moist soil, in tandem with the right late-summer weather, produces good displays, Crick wrote. But “a warm period during the fall can also decrease the intensity of fall colors by triggering early leaf drop before the colors have had a chance to develop, she wrote.

National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Gehring in Sullivan said it was too soon for him to say much about what fall color here might look like, only that “we’re not in a drought, that’s for sure.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: When Wisconsin fall colors are expected to peak in 2025

Reporting by Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

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