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September 10, 2012 September 10, 2012 September 10, 2012 September 10, 2012
Some droughts are good!
A consequence of this weather pattern we've seen from late spring through the
summer that brought us our lovely drought situation is that very little in the
way of "classical" severe weather has plagued our state. In other words, whither
tornadoes? Sometimes it works out that way, sometimes it doesn't.
Almond Joy's got nuts ... Mounds Don't!
Sorry, couldn't help myself. Anyway, we had an extremely fast start in early
spring with 52 tornadoes during April, breaking our record total of 50 set
just last year during an even worse drought (see, sometimes it doesn't). After
April, we really came up on the short side during May with only four tornadoes,
and nothing since. Add the five that touched down during March and the total for
the year thus far comes to 61, six more than our 1950-2011 annual average (55).
Okay, we might be above average for the year already, but there is no denying it
has been very quiet on the severe weather front since April. Again, the timing
between the severe weather downturn and the drought is not mere coincidence.
The ZERO tornadoes from June through August is obviously a record, but that
absence of twisters for the entire summer has occurred once before (June-August
2003) since our accurate statistics began in 1950. Several years had between 1-3
tornadoes during that period. Here are the lowest June-August totals since 1950.
The seven June tornadoes in 2011 keeps it from one of the low spots.
-****-
Year Jun. Jul. Aug. June-August
2003 0 0 0 0
2012 0 0 0 0
1950 1 0 0 1
1978 1 0 0 1
1987 0 1 0 1
2001 1 0 0 1
2002 2 0 0 2
1980 1 0 2 3
1984 3 0 0 3
1986 1 0 2 3
1988 3 0 0 3
2000 3 0 0 3
-***-
Now in 2003, there were no more tornadoes for the rest of the year. In fact, that
final tornado on May 16, 2003, was the last twister reported in the state until
March 4, 2004. That's more than nine months, or 291 days, between tornadoes ...
still the longest tornado "drought" since records began.
We have a long way to go to match that record. We're at day 104 without a tornado
now (May 30-Sept. 10).
Gary McManus
Associate State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
(405) 325-2253
gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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-C- Copyright 2024 Oklahoma Climatological Survey
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