March

Oklahoma’s weather was mostly lamb during March, although it did have its lion moments. The state experienced only one true outbreak of severe weather, but that single event on March 14 was significant nonetheless with two confirmed tornadoes in McIntosh and McCurtain counties and hail greater than softball size in Ada. Remarkably, Oklahoma had gone nearly five months without a confirmed tornado since the previous two back on October 24, 2023, in Garvin and Potawatomie counties.

Oklahoma’s oddly persistent caste-like rainfall pattern—with those to the north and west of Interstate 44 seeing near-record dryness and those to the south and east experiencing abundance—continued during March. Rainfall totals to the northwest of I-44 were generally a half-inch or less, while amounts of 5-8 inches were quite common to the southeast. Ten Oklahoma Mesonet sites in far northwest Oklahoma failed to record more than a tenth of an inch of rain for the month, with another 17 stuck below the quarter-inch line on the rain gauge.

Winter seemed to take a final bow after February in Oklahoma, leaving March with a warm and wet transition to spring. Areas of southern Oklahoma failed to see temperatures dip below freezing, and Hollis managed to hit 100 degrees on one of the earliest dates in state history. The lack of wintry weather was replaced by active spring weather. Severe storms were not prevalent, but there were three distinct storm systems that brought damaging weather to the state. Severe storms on the 19th spawned at least two tornadoes according to preliminary data from the National Weather Service.