Fall Color Reports

Northeast

• McHenry County area:
  • Fall colors are winding down in the McHenry County area.
  • Many trees have lost leaves at this point.
  • There are red oak still holding on with, in many cases, brilliant red foliage.
  • White and bur oak continue to maintain yellow and russet.
  • High winds have blown the leaves off most of the early turners.

• McHenry County area:
  • Fall colors are winding down in the Will County area.
  • Many oaks remain in leaf, with splashes of yellowish-brown showing through the canopy.
  • Some silver maples in protected areas are a washed out yellowish-green, while others in exposed areas are fully defoliated.
  • The understory remains green where invasive species remain.
  • All others are done for the season.

Northwest 

• Rock Island area:
  • In the Rock Island area most of the yellow color is gone at this point.
  • There are still some good orange, golds, browns, and red color left from the oaks, hickories, and maples.
  • This is likely the last week for colors.
  • The understory is all but gone expect for the green honeysuckle.

Second week of October

West Central

• Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Greene, Hancock, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Pike, and Scott counties:
  • Trees in much of the area are now completely barren of leaves and any fall color whatsoever.
  • In spot areas, vibrant but fading fall colors can still be found (specifically, urban settings and rural areas with high populations of wind-protected and sun-protected sugar maple in the mid-stories).
  • Red oak and shingle oak appear to be a couple of the final species to turn.
  • Areas with predominantly oak and hickory mixes are still displaying a rusty-brown-yellow-red appearance, but the leaves are steadily falling.
  • This week will mark the end of the fall color season for the area.

 Eastern

• Charleston area:
  • In the Charleston area fall color is winding down.
  • Black oak and northern red oak are showing color variation from yellow orange to reddish orange to scarlet.
  • White oak is deep purple to orangish-brown. 
  • Pin oaks are typically displaying bronze to red.

Late October

Southern

• The few nights of below freezing temperatures took the brightness of the leaves.
• Many trees have dropped leaves.
• Leaves of trees which were in the process of turning such as silver maple will not finish the color change, the leaves have a dull withered look.
• Some oak species still are in the process of turning.
• The bald cypress is bright rusty brown with a carpet of needles underneath the ones that changed first.
• The wide view now is a mixture of tree branches, trees in color, and the holdout green oaks at Cache River State Natural Area.

End of October