Will Oklahoma Have Colorful Fall Foliage This Year?

If the forecast holds true throughout the day, Oklahoma really is in for a much-deserved reprieve from the ultra-high heat we've been having. I don't know if your weather app agrees with mine, but it's showing a projected high in the mid-90s.

We'll take it. That's practically football weather.

What Will Oklahoma’s Fall Look Like in 2026?

As we breathe a sigh of short-term relief, I can't help but wonder what the actual fall is going to look like this year.

Will we hit a normal stride of warm days with chilly breezes? Or is a pattern of endlessly beautiful days on tap for 2026 like it did last year? Nobody really knows, but it doesn't stop anyone from guessing.

While I was grilling dinner last night, looking around the yard, beyond the coming temperatures, I really started wondering what fall will literally look like. The trees. Will the foliage fall back into the warm tones of fall?

It's a love/hate season in my house. We all love the yellows, reds, and oranges across the landscape, but we also refuse to spend any amount of time outdoors because of the allergies.

The last dry summer/fall Oklahoma experienced was 2024. It was so dry, the bird dogs couldn't hardly sniff out the quail. And because of that dusty dryness, the fall foliage was muted into varying shades of brown for most of the state.

With time slipping now and our losing minutes of daylight every day, I don't even know if a few weeks of steady rain can help the trees recover in time to pop. My trees have been shedding leaves for weeks now.

Could Oklahoma’s Drought Affect Fall Foliage?

This time last year, there were only slivers of "slightly dry" areas across our state, and the endless fall made for some stunning sights. My own little maple tree held on to its own OSU Orange canopy for what seemed like a month. But, even though I've been watering it religiously through this year's worst-case drought status, I'm just hoping it lives, let alone turns. It's just too dry.

Then again, that might only be true of the western half of the state.

I-35 is a pretty good divider on the current drought map. That's not to say Eastern OK is doing good. It's dry too, but it's had a livable amount of rain this summer. It's certainly not beyond saving, and I'll bet the Talimena foliage road is pretty this year. Not the best it has ever looked, but not brown either.

Time will tell, and still nobody knows what the weather is going to do. The extended forecast is making huge swings almost daily. While there are still plenty of 100-degree days in that forecast, I do think the Dog Days are behind us for now.