Oklahoma’s big weather stories this spring overwhelmingly involved tornadoes and heavy rains — and June was no exception. The month finished as the sixth-wettest June on record, at 7.22 inches, nearly 3 inches above normal. The preliminary tornado count swelled to 25, the second-highest for the month on record. But there was at least one silver lining to all that active weather: June saw drought completely eliminated from Oklahoma for the first time in nearly six years.
After April’s stormy chaos, the first half of May brought a rare lull in Oklahoma’s spring severe weather season. Aside from an active kickoff on May 1 — featuring large hail, damaging winds, tornadoes, and flash flooding — the state experienced a quiet 16-day stretch, interrupted only by a single report of half-dollar-size hail in far southeastern Oklahoma on May 16. But the break didn’t last: severe storms returned on May 17 and dominated the remainder of the month.
Just four months after Oklahoma shattered its all-time November rainfall record, the state did it again—this time in April. The statewide average rainfall totaled 8.74 inches, surpassing the previous April record of 8.32 inches set in 1942, with data dating back to 1895. Numerous locations posted similar records, including Oklahoma City, where 12.55 inches of rain fell, topping April 1947’s 11.91 inches and ranking as the city’s sixth-wettest calendar month since records began in November 1890.
Other April 2025 rainfall records (asterisk denotes wettest calendar month on record):
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Most months, nearly breaking an all-time tornado record would dominate Oklahoma’s weather headlines. However, March 2025 will be remembered for a different kind of disaster—one of the worst wildfire outbreaks in state history, overshadowing all else.
Like the villain in a ‘90s action movie, winter struck back with a vengeance in January following the unusual warmth that closed out 2024. Several strong cold fronts delivered blustery winds, snow, ice, and some of the coldest air the state had seen since the generational freeze of February 2021.