LAKE PLACID – Someone in Albany forgot to tell Mother Nature that peak foliage season only happens on the weekends.

Although Mother Nature may have other plans for the Adirondack Park – such as orchestrating the color change of deciduous tree leaves to peak during the middle of the week sometime in late September or early October – midweek is not when tourists typically arrive to see the foliage.

Therefore, the New York Fall Foliage Report targets weekend travelers. In all, fall foliage tourists contribute $26.5 billion to the state’s economy every year.

“People are not just looking at the leaves, but they’re going to farmers markets, taking boat rides, scenic train rides,” said Eric Scheffel, the Empire State Development employee who administers the weekly foliage report for the I Love NY campaign. “It’s a very popular time to hit the road. All the colorful leaves we have make it even better.”

The 2016 New York Fall Foliage Reports debuted on Wednesday, Sept. 14. Two days later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent out a press release to promote the program.

“New York is home to some of the most spectacular foliage and natural beauty in the country, making it one of the nation’s top destinations to visit in autumn,” Cuomo said.

For the New York Fall Foliage Report, 66 volunteer spotters across the state send Scheffel their observations and weekend predictions of foliage colors by Tuesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon, the report is issued on www.iloveny.com and as a recorded phone message at 800-225-5697. People can see and hear the reports for New York’s 11 vacation regions: Adirondacks, Catskills, Thousand Islands-Seaway, Chautauqua-Allegheny, Hudson Valley, New York City, Long Island, Finger Lakes, Central New York, Greater Niagara and Capital-Saratoga Region.

Because of New York’s size, the governor said, it has one of the best foliage seasons in the nation. On any given weekend from late September through mid-November, there is somewhere in the state with peak foliage. The color changes begin in the higher elevations of the Adirondack and Catskill mountain ranges and end in New York City and Long Island.

The governor also invited travelers to join the 2016 Foliage Photog of the Week campaign featuring photos taken by Twitter, Instagram and Facebook users. The campaign will run through the end of the foliage season in early November and one photo posted using the #NYLovesFall hashtag will be selected and shared across all I Love NY social media channels each week. Users must tag photos with the name of the location where the image was taken.