Elevation is one of the major factors influencing the weather and climate of Kansas. Apart from the significant terrain features of the hill systems in Kansas, there is a general increasae in elevation from east to west. In the eastern part of Kansas, elevations are in the 200—400 meters in the east to over 1200 meters in the west. The higher elevations in the west are deceptively flat. Breaks and draws established in old water ways are not very visible.

Kansas has a wide variety of regions across the state. These range from the Flint Hills in eastern Kansas to the flat rolling croplands of western Kansas. The Kansas Geological Survey has classified these regions in the map shown below. Overlaying these ecological regions is a plot of the long-term weather stations for the state. Daily observations from these sites are available from 1900 through the present. These locations also have had minimal change in their exposure. This increases the usefulness when trying to identify changing climate trends.