When Does Fall Arrive in Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana?

KNGT | Louisiana — I started noticing leaves falling around Southwest Louisiana the last few days, and I ain't gonna lie, it got me excited. Fall is my favorite time of year, and after another long, HOT Louisiana summer, I'm ready for that first morning when I walk outside and think, "Oh yeah... there it is."

You know the morning I'm talking about. You walk outside before the sun comes up. There's a little chill in the air. Maybe you actually need a light jacket. The humidity isn't trying to give you a hug. THAT morning.

Now, I know better than to get too excited in early September around here. Louisiana will give us one cool morning, get everybody fired up, then hit us with 94 degrees and 80 percent humidity the next afternoon.

But seeing those leaves falling got me thinking. When does fall REALLY get here in Southwest Louisiana? I Found a Pretty Cool Fall Map. I started looking around and came across a website called Explorefall.com that has an interactive 2026 Fall Foliage Map. And I'm warning you now, you can waste some time playing with this thing. You can search Louisiana, find our part of the state and move a little slider through different dates to see when the fall colors are expected to start showing up.

The map breaks the colors down from little or no color all the way through low, moderate, high, peak and past peak. The neat part is that Explore Fall says its estimates are updated daily as weather conditions change. So it isn't just one map they made in January and forgot about. Weather can move things around a little.

Check out the Louisiana Fall Foliage Map

Fall Takes Its Sweet Time Down Here. Here's the part that might hurt your feelings if you're already dreaming about hoodies, gumbo and sitting around a fire. We've still got a little while.

According to the LSU AgCenter, Louisiana normally spends September and October slowly making that change from summer into fall. We may get some nice cool spells, but they can be followed by hot, summer-like weather. Sounds about right, don't it?

They say cooler weather usually starts taking over more by late October. The real chilly mornings and changing leaves that make it finally FEEL like fall usually don't show up until around mid to late November. And here in Southwest Louisiana, we're even farther south.

LSU AgCenter says the farther south you go in Louisiana, the less dramatic the fall colors tend to be. A lot of our trees that do change may not really show their colors until late November or even early December.

So while folks up north are taking pictures in October surrounded by red and orange trees, we might still be cutting grass in shorts. That's Louisiana for you. But I’m Ready Anyway I don't need mountains covered in orange leaves. Just give me about 55 degrees when I walk outside in the morning. Give me a pot of gumbo. Give me a fire outside. Give me football on the TV and a Saturday afternoon where I can sit outside without sweating through my shirt. I'm good. And when that first REAL cool front finally rolls through Southwest Louisiana, you know what's gonna happen.

Every person on Facebook is gonna post a screenshot of the temperature. Somebody's gonna cook gumbo. Somebody's gonna light a fire. And at least one person is gonna walk outside in shorts and flip-flops and say, "Man, it feels GOOD out here!" I'm ready for it. Until then, I'll keep watching those leaves fall and pretending we're closer than we probably are.