Peak fall foliage colors coming soon to New England as weather turns wetter

It's officially fall in New England, so what will this new season bring? Will we continue our recent drought? And what impacts will the past and future weather have on the fall foliage this year?

September 2025, much like September 2024, has been very dry. This comes on the heels of a three straight summer months with below average rainfall.

We have seen the drought status get worse and worse throughout New England, including an area of "extreme drought" through parts of central New Hampshire and Maine.

While fall isn't the worst time of year to experience a drought, it is likely to have real implications for the foliage season.

New England foliage map

First and foremost, a drought up north typically leads to an early burst of color followed by a fairly quick leaf drop.

You can see that many areas, particularly the higher elevations, are already showing moderate to high color. This is about a week ahead of schedule.

We will likely see some peak color in the White Mountains and Green Mountains this coming weekend.

While we are still a few weeks away from max color down here, you will start to notice bursts of color in many of the low-lying bogs, swamps and streams of southern New England this week.  

The recent dry weather combined with some ongoing tree fungus and diseases will make for a spotty foliage season overall this year. However, some rainfall in the forecast this week could bring some last-minute aid to stressed out trees.

Rain the Boston forecast

This week will likely be one of the wettest we have experienced in some time. Of course, the bar has been set quite low given the lack of rain this summer.

There is a chance of some rainfall just about every day this week, starting late on Tuesday.

We expect showers and a few thunderstorms to form north and west of Boston Tuesday afternoon. Some of these will linger into Wednesday, making for a rather gray and damp day.

A more widespread rainfall is likely Thursday into Friday. This could bring beneficial rains to just about all of New England.

Some of our weather models are showing 1-3" of water from northern Massachusetts up through southern and central New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine by the end of this week. That would be ideal for foliage and our dry landscape.  

Even more ideal would be a dry and sunny weekend. The jury is still out, but indications right now are that most of the wet weather will move out of here by Saturday. We will keep you updated in the coming days.