monthly climate summary

August is often Oklahoma’s most brutal summer month. The spring rains become a distant memory, heat gains momentum through July, and the state’s landscape turns a sickly shade of yellow. With drought intensifying along with the heat this summer, August looked bleak once again. However, Mother Nature was in a charitable mood. The upper-level heat dome – a common visitor to the Southern Plains in late summer – shifted to the west and brought Oklahoma under northwesterly flow aloft.

July followed Mother Nature’s customary script for mid-summer in Oklahoma, complete with long stretches of sun and scorching temperatures, wildly varying rainfall, and rapidly intensifying drought conditions. Rainfall fortunes were separated roughly between the haves to the southeast of I-44 and the have-nots to the northwest. Parts of the southeast saw more than 10 inches of rain, while less than an inch fell from central though west central Oklahoma. The precipitation extremes exemplified the moisture disparity within the state.

June, normally a pillar of Oklahoma’s spring rainy season, was very much a disappointment in that regard. Unfortunately, that lack of significant moisture fueled a quick return to drought across parts of the state. Central Oklahoma became particularly dry with deficits of more than 8 inches accumulating since the beginning of May. According to preliminary data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, the month finished with a statewide average of 2.97 inches, 1.55 inches below normal to rank as the 43rd driest June since records began in 1895.

May gets top billing as Oklahoma’s rowdiest weather month, and it certainly lived up to that notoriety this year. At least three major severe weather outbreaks occurred during May. These short but intense periods of disturbed weather brought the state tornadoes, severe winds, hail to the size of grapefruits, and widespread flooding. Data from the National Weather Service suggest as many as 50 tornadoes touched down during the month, a number that could rise as more possible twisters are investigated.

April took its penchant for widely varying weather to near satirical extremes across Oklahoma. Floods, tornadoes, drought and blizzards – Mother Nature pulled out all the stops to give Oklahoma nearly the entire gamut of weather hazards. As many as six separate storm systems traversed the state during April, but the worst was saved for last.  A powerful upper-level storm impacted the state from the 28th through the 30th. Widespread rainfall amounts of 3-6 inches produced flooding from southwestern through northeastern Oklahoma.

Although drought, severe storms and flooding rainfall all made their presence known during the month, March’s weather story was dominated by fire. Several months of elevated fire danger came to a head March 6 with the ignition of four large wildfires across far northwestern Oklahoma and southern Kansas. The group of fires was labeled the “Northwest Oklahoma Complex.” The wildfires, pressed by winds gusting to more than 60 mph, scorched a total of 779,292 acres. Approximately 472,000 acres of that total were in Kansas. The cost of the fires, both to property and lives, was tremendous.

If glimpses of winter were sporadic in December and January, they were downright scarce during February. Temperatures often soared into the 70s and 80s, culminating with a maximum of 99 degrees at the Mangum Mesonet site on February 11. That tied the mark for highest temperature ever recorded in Oklahoma during not only February, but winter as well. That record was set previously at Arapaho on Feb. 24, 1918. According to preliminary Mesonet data, the statewide average for February was 49.8 degrees, 7.7 degrees above normal to rank as the fourth warmest February since records began in 1895.

January 2017 would have been remembered as exceedingly warm and dull if not for the visit from a powerful mid-month winter storm. The storm struck over the weekend of Jan. 13-15 and prompted a State of Emergency declaration for all 77 counties by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin. An unusually moisture-laden weather system for January, the storm left the northwestern half of the state encased in ice and the southeastern half waterlogged.

December was a cold month for many Oklahomans, a dry month for most, and a memorable one for all. Normally, snow would be the big news during the first month of winter, but drought intensification, one of the more memorable cold snaps in recent memory, and one of the warmest Christmas Days on record captured the headlines this year. According to preliminary data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, the statewide average temperature was 38.4 degrees, 0.5 degrees below normal and the 50th coolest December since records began in 1895.

Mother Nature did little during November to sooth those areas in Oklahoma most impacted by drought. Significant rains were scattered and temperatures were well above normal – as was the Oklahoma wind. All those factors contributed to drought intensification. According to preliminary data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, the statewide average rainfall total was 1.23 inches, 1.28 inches below normal and ranked as the 41st driest November since records began in 1895.