August 2025 pulled a fast one on Oklahoma. Instead of the typical late-summer swelter, the month ended with a taste of fall as two powerful cold fronts shoved aside the heat. The final week brought gray skies, steady rain and highs stuck in the 60s and 70s — more like October than August. The chill was strong enough to break multiple records, including several record-low maximums and even a few outright record lows.
OK-FIRE is pleased to announce its fall workshop schedule, which will consist of two in-person options in Lawton and Bartlesville and one virtual option.
After months dominated by rain and severe weather, summer finally reclaimed the spotlight in Oklahoma during July. The state’s wet streak ended, replaced by rising heat and drying conditions. A lone tornado touchdown near Vance AFB extended the tornado streak to five consecutive months, bringing the 2025 total through July to 88. Sweltering July heat held off for much of the month but surged during the final two weeks—only to be abruptly cut short by an unusually strong cold front on July 31.
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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