This weekend will be a great time to visit the mountains of North Carolina! Visitors to western parts of the state this week have reported seeing a lot of beautiful fall color. A clear and cool weekend forecast will make for more great leaf viewing over the next few days.
Almost any location in the mountains will be great for seeing vivid fall colors this weekend. Elevations between 3000 and 5000 feet will likely have the best color. This includes many locations along the Blue Ridge Parkway from Boone, Blowing Rock, and Grandfather Mountain through the Linville Gorge area to the Pisgah National Forest and the Great Smoky Mountains. The highest mountain tops may have already seen its peak color for the season as elevations above 5000 feet will be past its peak color over the coming days. Locations below 3000 feet are still seeing some green.
Fall color will be seen in the city of Asheville this weekend as well. However, the peak for fall foliage in Asheville and for locations around Chimney Rock and Lake Lure may not take place until the next week or two.
As temperatures turn cooler this weekend, more fall color will appear across the North Carolina Piedmont. For locations near Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh, the fall color typically doesn't hit its peak until November.
If you are making a trip to the North Carolina mountains this weekend to see the foliage, you will want to pack warm clothes. While plenty of sunshine is in the forecast, it will be quite cool. High temperatures in the Boone area will only warm to the low 50s on Saturday and Sunday. Morning lows could drop to the upper 20s to low 30s in some mountain locations.
Share your fall foliage pictures with Meteorologist Lee Ringer on Facebook and Twitter or e-mail them to ncweather@twcnews.com.