Fall Foliage in Kansas: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Peak color in Kansas typically runs October 20 to November 2. Exact timing shifts one to two weeks year to year — a warm, wet autumn pushes peak later, while drought stress or an early hard frost accelerates it.

Color usually becomes noticeable around October 10, starting with Eastern woodlands & Flint Hills fringes (late October) and spreading across the state over the following weeks.

Most years the show is largely over by November 10. River corridors statewide holds color latest (late October – early November), and oak-dominated woods keep muted color for another week or two beyond the maples.

Flint Hills Scenic Byway (KS 177); Glacial Hills Scenic Byway (KS 7). Go midweek during the peak window if you can — the marquee routes draw serious weekend traffic at peak.

The palette here is built on cottonwood, oak, hickory, walnut, sumac. Reds and oranges come from anthocyanins that sugar maples and red maples manufacture in sunny, cool-night weather; the yellows in birch and aspen are carotenoids that were in the leaf all summer, unmasked when chlorophyll breaks down.

The recipe for a great year is a moist growing season followed by a sunny September of warm days and cool — not freezing — nights. Watch late-summer drought maps: stressed trees turn early and dull. The windows on this page are the reliable planning anchor either way.

In any single spot, expect 5–10 good days. Statewide, the window runs October 20 to November 2 because Eastern woodlands & Flint Hills fringes (late October) and River corridors statewide (late October – early November) are staggered — if you can move, Kansas gives you weeks of peak somewhere.

Chase the stagger: earlier terrain has already peaked, later terrain hasn't yet. Arrive too early and head for Eastern woodlands & Flint Hills fringes; too late, drop to River corridors statewide. The color map on this page shows today's estimated status across the area you search.