- Flickr / Oleg Sidorenko
It feels like just days ago we were all sitting around complaining about the miserable summer weather. But somehow the calendar has turned way toward fall.
As we all know, there are three key things that happen every year in Autumn: This Onion story makes the rounds on your parents' Facebook accounts, people use the word "brisk," and the leaves on trees turn gorgeous shades of red and yellow.
But it doesn't happen at the same time everywhere.
The Weather Channel has helpfully compiled this map of when fall foliage is expected to peak in each US state this year.
In some places, represented by the darker colors on the map, leaves turn early - the earliest in late September. Other places, represented by lighter colors, peak as late as early November.
Most East Coast cities, much of the South, the Pacific Northwest, and the lower Midwest see later peaks. Chicago falls right in the mid-October zone. The earliest peaks show up in northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, parts of New England, and the Rockies.
There's also an interactive tool at SmokyMountains.com for figuring out exactly what the leaves will look like in your area throughout fall, though it's a little unclear what the methodology behind it is.