May

Historic rains during May virtually eliminated the drought that had plagued Oklahoma for much of the past five years. The storms that brought that relief came with a cost, however, spawning more than 60 tornadoes, catastrophic flooding, and the highest price of all, 11 fatalities. The rains began during the first week of May and by the end of the month the state had seen the most rainfall on record for any month in its history. The statewide average, as measured by the Oklahoma Mesonet, finished at 14.40 inches, 9.58 inches above normal.

In a state so accustomed to highly variable and often tumultuous weather, May 2013 will be long remembered as one of its most notorious. The month began with some of the coldest late-spring weather in the state's history and finished with a flourish of violent weather, including one of Oklahoma's worst tornado disasters on record. Stirring the echoes of May 3, 1999, for many central Oklahoma residents, a massive and violent tornado churned its path of destruction from near Newcastle through south Oklahoma City and Moore before dissipating near Stanley Draper Lake.

A pleasantly cool final day and scattered heavy rains during the month’s final week were too little and too late, and May entered the record books as one of the warmest and driest in state history. According to data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, the statewide average temperature finished at 72.2 degrees, 4.3 degrees above normal. That ranks May as the fifth warmest on record. Statewide average records date back to 1895. That heat, combined with the state’s warmest March and tenth warmest April, propelled the spring season to the warmest on record at 65.1 degrees, 6 degrees above normal.

Even though severe weather only struck on a few days during May, those instances gave the month more than its money’s worth. The most violent weather occurred on May 24 when several long-track violent tornadoes tore their way through Oklahoma from west to east. While the exact details of the twisters are still being discovered, their 10 confirmed fatalities are unfortunately all too certain. Those casualties make the month the deadliest due to tornadoes in Oklahoma since May 1999.