The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced some great news on Tuesday regarding its fall colors prediction.

"Relative to 2024, the weather has really cooperated in 2025 for fall color display," said Brian Schwingle, a DNR forest health program consultant.

Some of your summer plans might have gotten rained out this year, but those rainy days actually helped invigorate our fall colors.  

"We didn't have a serious drought anywhere in the state. We had relatively decent rains from June through August, which means, again, that we didn't lose a lot of leaves due to drought stress, so that's a really good thing for fall colors," said Schwingle.

So far, September has been running about 10 to 15 degrees below average, which helps promote those vibrant reds.

"When you get those cool temperatures that don't quite get down to freezing, you get more of those red pigments produced in the leaves," he said.

This past May, when leaves first started growing, it was relatively dry across the state. That mean less leaf disease, unlike last year.

"Last year, we had a tremendous amount of leaf disease that actually caused maybe 10% to 20% of our aspens to be defoliated by mid August. That didn't happen this year," he said.

So what about timing? May was not only dry but it was also on the warmer side, leading to an earlier leaf out which — along with recent frosts — means a slightly earlier peak to the season.

"We've had some early frosts in various parts of northern Minnesota," he said. "When we've had a frost in early September, that causes peak fall colors to occur on the early side of the range."

All bets are off if we get a freeze, which would kill the whole show. But if not, prepare to be dazzled.

"We'll probably see peak in the latter third of September in various locations throughout northern Minnesota," he said.

For planning purposes, you can always check out the DNR's Fall Color Map for the current status of leaves across the state. You can also use the site's slider tool to show a climatological prediction of peak fall colors for the days to come.

The DNR also recommends going leaf peeping on weekdays or avoiding midday on the weekends because that is when you will find the greatest crowds at the parks.