Multiple states turned dark orange nine weeks ago, it means that an onset of ILI is expected to have occurorange now. Lighter oranges mean the EWS is detecting increases in some signals but not enough to trigger an alarm. One should expect this map to become fully orange earlier than the observations (right)
Multiple states become dark orange, it means that an onset of ILI has been detected, and the ILI season has started. The Early Warning System anticipated all observed onsets so far. But it also contained some false (too early) alarms.