BEATRICE, NEB. - From sports like playoff baseball and football, to seasonal activities and Halloween, there’s lots to love about fall. But one thing synonymous with the season is fall color.

With temperatures forecast to be well above average through the next 10 days in September, News Channel Nebraska went to find the answers as to how a warm fall will impact leaf color change in the Cornhusker state.


“The warmer weather we have, it’ll delay the timing of the leaf change a bit because the hotter and drier temperatures don’t promote the vibrant color as much as color and wetter weather do.”

Brandon Sieck is a Forester for the Nebraska Forest Service and adds that wetter weather provides more vibrant color. While that’s not to say Nebraska won’t have much color, with much of the state in a drought, it could be delayed or subdued.

However, Eric North of the Arbor Day Foundation says cooler nights with temperatures in the 40’s can help.

“End of August beginning of September, you get some of those cool nights coming in and the tree really picks up on that signal that it really is time for fall,” North said.

While it’s still early in the season, you may look one way and see trees with green leaves, as you’d expect during the summer. But, you look the other way, and see dots of fall colors like orange, yellow, or red. North and Sieck say this can be from a number of factors.

“There can be factors individual to each tree will cause it to start to change earlier,” Sieck said. “That can be disease, stress from drought, so if a tree is experiencing any problems it will likely change before a healthy tree will.”

“For instance, if you have insects eating one branch of a tree, that branch will begin to go through whatever its fall colors are.”

While it’s been a dry end to the summer and start to fall, Sieck says Nebraska’s peak color change depends on where you’re at.

“I would say northern Nebraska will be about the third or fourth week of November, while southern Nebraska will be the last week of October, into November.”