monthly climate summary

The winter storm that began the year captured January’s biggest weather headline. The event straddled the changeover from 2020 to 2021, with as much as 10 inches of snow falling in Vici on New Year’s Day. Reports of 4-8 inches were widespread across the northwestern half of the state. Seasonal totals through January climbed to nearly 3 feet across northwestern Oklahoma. The National Weather Service cooperative observer at Arnett reported 34.3 inches since late October, 24.1 inches more than their entire normal seasonal total of 10.2 inches.

A powerful winter storm pounded the state on 2020’s final day, a fitting epitaph to a tumultuous year—and a wintry December. The storm lasted into the first morning of 2021 and brought widespread totals of 2-6 inches of snow from southwestern into northeastern Oklahoma. Localized areas in central Oklahoma reported up to 10 inches of snow. The storm was the last in a series of four impactful winter systems that struck the state during December, and the fifth of the season. The month’s first storm dumped 10-15 inches of snow in far northwestern Oklahoma between Dec. 2-3.

November’s weather struggled to live up to the level of excitement provided by October’s historic cold snap and ice storm, although it had its moments. Following that burst of moisture just before Halloween, some areas of the state went more than a month without seeing at least a quarter inch of rain in a single day. Other areas saw Oklahoma’s weather at its worst, however. Storms on the 24th brought severe weather back to the state with damaging winds and hail up to the size of golf balls. At least two tornadoes touched down that day in southeastern Oklahoma.

A historic winter ice storm struck the state during the last week of October, leaving nearly 400,000 residences and businesses without power. The extreme nature of the event – arguably the most impactful early-season winter storm in the history of Oklahoma – was punctuated by heavy snow in the Panhandle and flooding rains in eastern sections of the state. Trees, still burdened with a full head of leaves so early in the season, were easy prey for radial ice accumulations of up to 3 inches across western and central Oklahoma.

A historic cold snap set the tone for a cool September, which saw one of the earliest intrusions of winter weather in state history. An unusually strong cold front blasted through the state September 8-9, sending temperatures plummeting up to 50 degrees lower than the previous day’s highs. Lowest maximum and minimum temperature records were shattered across the western half of the state. High temperatures on the ninth struggled to a chilly 40 degrees at Boise City and Kenton following lows of 33 degrees.

Three strong cold fronts brought the summer heat to its knees during August, but drought took advantage of a mostly dry month to proliferate across western Oklahoma. The far southeast was anything but parched, however, after several rounds of heavy precipitation and a brush with the outskirts of Hurricane Laura left it with nearly a foot of rain for the month. There were sporadic outbursts of severe weather during August.

July brought a near miraculous recovery to much of Oklahoma, which was faced with an intensifying drought headed into summer’s scorching middle stanza. Uncharacteristically wet conditions succeeded in beating the drought back to a more manageable level, however, especially across the hardest hit areas in northern and central Oklahoma. Drought covered as much as 51 percent of the state on July 7 according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That coverage was reduced nearly in half by the end of July, however, eventually encompassing a little less than 26 percent of the state.

Largely deprived of its primary rainy season, Oklahoma saw drought surge across the state during June. A mid-month bout with showers and storms managed to stem the flash drought’s intensification and spread with beneficial rains across northwestern Oklahoma. The respite was brief, however. Dry weather and intense heat returned by the end of the month and drought was again on the move to the south and east. Contained wholly within the western half of the state at the end of May, drought had progressed to the state’s eastern border by the end of June.

Cool weather dominated a good part of May, and possibly robbed Mother Nature of the heat needed for her most exotic springtime menu item; tornadoes. There was still the normal offering of large hail, damaging winds, and flash flooding, but the twister count was below average. The National Weather Service indicated a preliminary total of 13 tornadoes for the month, well below the 1950-2019 average of 24.4, and a relatively minuscule tally compared to last May’s all-time Oklahoma monthly record of 105. The 2020 preliminary total of 33 also falls below the January-May average of 41.

It’s difficult to say which weather hazard should claim top billing for April. Two late season freeze events made their pitch by battering the state’s winter wheat crop and fruit orchards, primarily on the 15th and again on the 18th. Temperatures dropped into the 20s as far south as the Red River, with a bit of light snow falling across the western half of the state during the extended cold snap. Drought also made a bid for the top spot by threatening to spread from its confines in the far western Panhandle to a much broader area of western Oklahoma.