2022

December provided a fitting end to Oklahoma’s tumultuous 2022 weather story. This final chapter came complete with a half-dozen tornadoes, the coldest December day in 32 years, and the finishing touches on an all-time Oklahoma rainfall record. The Oklahoma Mesonet site at Goodwell finished 2022 with 6.48 inches of rain, breaking the previous all-time lowest annual rainfall record for any location in Oklahoma of 6.53 inches from Regnier in 1956. Those data go back to the late 1880s.

Oklahoma’s extended spate of warmer than normal weather—which began in early June and continued largely uninterrupted for the next five months—came to an abrupt halt on Nov. 10 following a clash with the season’s first true arctic cold front. Highs in the 70s and 80s those first 10 days of November were soon replaced with highs in the 40s and 50s, and low temperatures below freezing more often than not. Any hint of a return to the weather’s previous mild ways was quashed by recurring cold fronts throughout the rest of the month.

Drought held on through October in Oklahoma for the fifteenth consecutive month, its roots dating back to August 2021 and boosted by additional flash drought conditions beginning in June 2022. The drought’s severity and coverage peaked in mid-October, its impacts varied and extreme. Dead and dormant vegetation led to almost daily fights with wildfires for fire departments in all regions of the state.

Drought surged across Oklahoma as the driest September since 1956 took its toll on the state’s landscape. The amount of drought in the state remained largely unchanged through September at approximately 99%, but the intensity of that drought increased dramatically according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Extreme and exceptional drought, the Drought Monitor’s two worst categories, jumped from 47% on Aug. 30 to 64% at the end of September, the highest such levels seen in the state since Feb. 19, 2013. Exceptional drought alone rose to 17%, its highest level since May 8, 2018.

August’s heat and drought appeared ferocious at first, with widespread triple-digit temperatures and moisture deficits throughout the first half of the month. A strong cold front signaled a pattern change, however, and the heat settled into more seasonable levels for the last half of the month. On the whole, August was still well above normal and contributed to the hottest climatological summer seen in the state since 2011.

The seemingly impenetrable heat wave and dry spell that had punished Oklahoma since early June continued through nearly all of July, giving Oklahoma the type of scorching hot weather unseen in the state since the brutal summers of 2011 and 2012. A strong cold front snuck through the heat dome’s defenses near the end of the month to bring some relief, but the damage was done. The combination of hot weather, a lack of significant moisture, and relentless sunshine combined to plunge Oklahoma into flash drought that had covered the entire state by the end of July.

June managed to pack pieces of three seasons into a single month. The first 10 days were quite springlike, with abundant rainfall and high temperatures in the 70s and 80s. That there was very little in the way of severe weather was a bonus for this period, as was the drought reduction across much of the state. Drought coverage dropped from 43% of Oklahoma at the end of May to 31% at the end of June according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and the worst two categories of drought—extreme and exceptional—fell from 17% to 5% over that same period.

May’s reputation as Oklahoma’s most prolific severe weather month was confirmed within the first week with as many as 21 tornadoes in the month’s first five days. While most of that count were weak EF0 or EF1 tornadoes, they were damaging, nonetheless. That total also included two strong EF2 twisters that struck both Earlsboro and Seminole on May 4. The Earlsboro tornado traveled in nearly a complete circle, producing damage in the southeast side of the city first and then the northeast side along its circuitous route.

Opinions on Oklahoma’s weather are often more variable than the weather itself. Some Oklahomans will look back on April 2022 and remember the seven confirmed tornadoes that touched down, although that is still below the long-term average of 11.7 for the month. Many others will remember drought that saw both intensification in the northwest and improvement across the southeast. There is one aspect of this April’s weather that would unite most Oklahomans, however—the wind.

March’s weather ran the gamut of nearly all the hazards Oklahoma has to offer, befitting a seasonal transition month in the Southern Plains. Winter got the first crack with a blast of arctic air during the month’s second week. Temperatures plummeted and a storm system blanketed the northern half of the state with 2-3 inches of snow. The frozen weather resulted in numerous traffic accidents and closed many businesses and schools. Spring took its turn with at least three tornadoes rumbling out of Texas across Love, Marshall, and Johnston counties on March 21.