The crunch of leaves under your feet after a rainless summer, autumnal breezes blasting hot air all over the Southland, reds and oranges everywhere because everything is on fire—there’s truly nothing quite like fall in Los Angeles. But we’re exaggerating (just a little): L.A. isn’t entirely exempt from seasonal charm, and fall foliage is no exception.
Of course, figuring out when that sole indicator of fall will actually show up is half the challenge, but thankfully SmokyMountains.com has a fall foliage prediction map for the entire country, including the L.A. area.
The annual interactive map, which uses an algorithm that pulls in data from sources like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, predicts that L.A.’s 2024 foliage outlook is a little behind New England’s. The map has L.A. pegged to hit a patchy and partial change of colors by mid-to-late October, with the peak forecasted for November 11.
Any number of weather conditions can, of course, alter those predictions, including sun, rain and unfortunately fire. Anecdotally, last year’s map predicted a peak by early October, and there was basically no color to behold in L.A. then; instead, the foliage kind of unceremoniously made an appearance in November.
With that in mind, once we work our way through October, it makes a little more sense to turn from predictions to observations. California Fall Color (shout out to its “dude, autumn happens here, too” tagline) logs regular photo updates and even maintains a statewide map that’s updated every Friday.