monthly climate summary

Autumn returned to Oklahoma nearly right on cue during the last week of September thanks to a moisture-laden cold front. The temperatures got downright chilly with lows in the 40s and 50s and highs in the 60s and 70s for a couple of days, although temperatures zoomed back into the 80s on the month's final day. The cold front provided a brief respite to what had become, at least for most of the state, a decidedly dry and warm September. The late heroics by Mother Nature were not enough to avoid the inevitable, however, as the month finished both drier and warmer than normal.

It was not the wettest July on record in Oklahoma, at least not on a statewide basis. That mark belongs to 1950's statewide average of 9.26 inches. Nor was it the coolest. That title is held by 1906's statewide average of 75.9 degrees. Nevertheless, this July will be remembered as one of the wettest and mildest in recent memory, especially compared to the blast furnace versions of the last few summers. It featured a July 4th holiday with highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s, and enough rain to kick drought to the curb across much of the state.

June followed its normal script almost to the letter with a rainy and stormy first half of the month that gave way to the beginnings of a long hot stretch of Oklahoma summer. Mother Nature did manage to throw in a nice improvisation at the end of the month with a cool front dropping temperatures into the 80s over much of the state. The previous heat was enough to end the state's streak of below normal months at four, however.

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.

The wet conditions of February failed to translate into March, but the cooler than normal weather continued virtually uninterrupted. According to data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, the month's statewide average temperature was 47.7 degrees, 2.5 degrees below normal and the 45th coolest March since records began in 1895. The two months together accomplished a relatively rare feat of late, becoming first consecutive months to finish below normal in Oklahoma since January and February 2011.

Winter roared back into Oklahoma during February, providing significant drought relief to much of the state while dumping as much as three feet of snow in the northwest. According to preliminary data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, the statewide average precipitation total for February was 3.03 inches, 1.27 inches above normal. That would rank the month as the 13th wettest February since records began in 1895, although melting snow in the northwest could push that mark higher. Radar estimates indicate 2-6 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation fell across the state during the month.

January seemed destined to finish on the dry side of normal, just as the eight months previous to it had, before a late-month burst of spring changed its fortunes. Tornado watches covered much of the eastern two-thirds of the state on the 29th, a by-product of the storm system that also dumped 1-3 inches of rain across parts of that same area. There were no confirmed tornadoes in Oklahoma, but reports of large hail and wind damage were scattered across the state.

A slide back to true wintry weather, the likes of which had not been seen across Oklahoma since early February 2011, was not enough to prevent the inevitable. Although the official numbers will not be released by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for a few more days, it appears likely that 2012 will go down in the record books as Oklahoma’s warmest year on record. Those records date back to 1895. Preliminary data from the Oklahoma Mesonet indicate a statewide average temperature of 41.9 degrees for December.

Drought surged during November with a return to the dry, warm and windy weather pattern that Oklahoma has become accustomed to over the last couple of years. According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report, the amount of extreme to exceptional drought rose from 72 percent last week to 91 percent this week. The state had not seen that amount of extreme to exceptional drought since late September. Other than a small but persistent area of moderate drought in far northeastern Oklahoma, the entire state remained in at least severe drought according to the report.

It’s been awhile since Oklahoma has seen a month like October. Eleven months, to be exact. Not since September 2011 had Oklahoma seen a month where the statewide average temperature finished on the cold side of normal. In fact, 25 of the 30 months prior to October were warmer than normal, starting with April 2010. According to data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, October became the 26th coolest on record with a statewide average of 59.7 degrees, 1.6 degrees below normal.  Statewide records date back to 1895.