NWS Norman, Oklahoma - Oklahoma Centennial Weather Page

Year	Dates	Event
100 Years of Oklahoma Weather In celebration of Oklahoma's centennial... the National Weather Service in Norman looks back at some of the most significant and most memorable weather events that have affected the state during its first 100 years.
1911	November 11	A "blue norther" lowered temperatures 50 to 65 degrees in 2 hours. The high and low temperatures at Oklahoma City on this day... 83 and 17... Both still stand as records for the date as of 2007.
1911-1912	December-March	87.3 inches of snow fell in the town of Beaver, a state record for seasonal snowfall.
1912	April 27	Major tornado outbreak left at least 30 dead across western and central Oklahoma. The exact number of tornadoes is unknown, but there were at least 16 tornadoes that earned an F2 or greater rating, including 5 that were rated F3 and 6 that were rated F4. hardest hit were the towns of Butler /6 dead/, Lugert /all but 2 buildings destroyed/, Calumet /3 dead/, Hinton /4 unconfirmed deaths/, and Sentinel /60 homes damaged or destroyed/. In terms of the number and intensity of tornadoes, some researchers believe this outbreak was at least as significant as the outbreak of May 3, 1999.
1920	May 2	An F4 tornado destroyed Peggs, killing 71. This is the third deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history.
1923	October 13-16	Flooding on the North Canadian River led to a breach of Lake Overholser, forcing evacuation of 15,000 residents in Oklahoma City. This flood led to a radical redistribution of housing patterns in the city as higher-income families moved northward, away from the river.
1924	March	Heavy snow fell during much of the month over most of the state. Monthly snowfall totals were 20 to 37 inches in many areas, some of which still stand as all-time snowfall records for any single month.
1930	April 25	An F4 tornado killed 23 in Bethany. This is the 9th deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history.
1932-38		General drought conditions, combined with inappropriate farming practices, led to the "Dust Bowl." Details of some of the more noteworthy single events follow.
1935	April 10-11	A dust storm covered almost the entire state, reducing visibility to less than 2 blocks as far east as Pawnee County.
1935	April 14	The "Black Sunday" dust storm reduced visibility to zero late in the afternoon over the panhandle and northwest, "turning afternoon brightness immediately into midnight darkness."
1936	July-August	Record heat during the summer of 1936 produced high temperatures of 120 at Alva, Altus (twice) and Poteau, the highest temperatures ever recorded officially in Oklahoma. The high of 113 at Oklahoma City on August 11 is still the all-time record high temperature for the city.
1942	April 27	An F4 tornado struck prior, killing 52. This is the 5th deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history.
1942	June 12	An F4 tornado struck Oklahoma City, killing 35. This is the 7th deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history, and was the deadliest tornado to hit Oklahoma City until the F5 tornado of May 3 1999.
1945	April 12	An F5 tornado struck antlers, killing 69. This is the 4th deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history.
1947	April 9	An F5 long-track tornado struck Woodward. 116 people were killed, making this the deadliest single tornado in Oklahoma history.
1948	March 20-25	A tornado struck Tinker Air Force Base on March 20, leading to the first tornado forecast 5 days later by Air Force meteorologists Fawbush and Miller. The base was struck again on March 25, but the first-ever successful tornado forecast led to protective action that prevented significant damage to aircraft.
1955	May 12	An F5 tornado struck Blackwell, killing 20. Another F5 tornado formed just north of Blackwell in Kay County and moved north into Kansas, eventually killing 80 people at Udall, Kansas.
1957		An active spring tornado season, 85 tornadoes in April and May, and a record 12 more tornadoes in November contributed to total of 107 tornadoes in Oklahoma in 1957. This was a record yearly total, until the outbreak of May 3, 1999 as well as other tornado events in 1999 helped produced an annual total of 145 tornadoes.
1960	May 5	Two F4 tornadoes led to 32 deaths in Wilburton, Keota, Howe, and Reichert.
1971	February 21-22	A blizzard in northwest Oklahoma dumped a storm total of 36 inches of snow at Buffalo which still stands as a state record for storm-total snowfall.
1973	October 11	Rainfall of 15.68 inches in Enid established a state record for 24-hour rainfall. It actually fell in only 13 hours, and 12 inches of it fell in 3 hours. The resulting flash flood killed 9.
1974	June 8	Two dozen tornadoes in central and eastern Oklahoma. The strongest was an F4 that killed 14 in Drumright. Five tornadoes struck within the Oklahoma City limits, one of which touched down at Will Rogers Airport and hit the National Weather Service office.
1979	April 10	The "Red River" tornado outbreak produced a total of 13 tornadoes from north central Texas into central Oklahoma, killing 4 in Oklahoma including 3 near Lawton. This outbreak is remembered most for the massive tornado that struck Wichita Falls, killing 45. That tornado was the costliest tornado ever, until Oklahoma City was struck on May 3, 1999.
1980	Summer	A heat wave scorched the state during the summer of 1980 and Oklahoma City reached 100 or more on 50 days during the season.
1983	October 17-23	Flooding resulted from 10 to 15 inches of rain, as moisture from the remnants of pacific Hurricane Tico interacted with a stalled front.
1983	December	An arctic outbreak led to prolonged wind chills well below zero over nearly the entire latter half of the month. Oklahoma City remained below freezing from the 17th through the 31st, a record duration for subfreezing temperatures. On Christmas Eve, the high was 3 degrees and the low was zero.
1984	May 26-27	Heavy rains falling over Tulsa on Memorial Day in 1984 produced over 12 inches of rain in a matter of hours and generated severe flash flooding throughout the city. Several rain gages with 15-inch rainfall capacity allegedly overflowed. A total of 14 people were killed.
1985	November 30	Subfreezing temperatures and heavy showers led to an ice storm during the day and evening across parts of northern and western Oklahoma. The Bedlam football game that evening in Stillwater, between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, was played in nearly continuous freezing rain and sleet - punctuated by thunder and lightning at one point as a squall line moved through the area. In southern Oklahoma, thunderstorms produced golfball hail in Duncan when temperatures were barely above freezing. An F2 tornado occurred in Atoka County. The Sooners won the "Ice Bowl," defeating the Cowboys 13-0.
1986	January	For the first time since records began in 1890, Oklahoma City experienced a totally dry calendar month - zero precipitation.
1986	September 30-October 4	Flooding in at least 52 counties in western, central, and north central Oklahoma resulted from 10 to 20 inches of rain. Remnants of pacific tropical cyclones Newton and Paine contributed to the heavy rain. Heaviest rainfall in north central Oklahoma led to major flooding on the Arkansas River and its tributaries. Damage estimates reached 350 million dollars.
1987	December 25-27	An ice storm left ice accumulations of 1 to 2 inches in a swath from Duncan to Norman to Tulsa. This was one of the worst ice storms in state history to date. Between 50 and 100 thousand homes were left without power, some for nearly a week.
1988		There were only 17 tornadoes in Oklahoma in 1988, the lowest annual total since detailed tornado records began in 1950. The average number of Oklahoma tornadoes per year is around 53.
1989	March 3	A cold outbreak lowered temperatures from the 70s into the 20s in a few hours. Severe thunderstorms formed over the cold air that evening, producing large hail north of Oklahoma City where surface temperatures were near 20. A snowstorm would produce near-blizzard conditions in parts of the state two days later.
1991	April 26	A tornado outbreak produced 58 tornadoes from Texas to Iowa, including 10 in Oklahoma. 2 deaths occurred in northeastern Oklahoma. The largest tornado in Oklahoma left a 66-mile damage path in northern Oklahoma, and was over 1/2 mile wide. This outbreak included the Andover, Kansas tornado, in which 17 were killed.
1994	August 17	A large severe thunderstorm left a path of destruction from the combined effects of wind and very large hail, from northwest Oklahoma to just northwest of Oklahoma City. Known as the "Lahoma Storm," the Oklahoma mesonet site near there clocked winds at 113 mph before the anemometer was broken. The storm also produced large amounts of golfball to baseball size hail, which stripped trees and shrubs of vegetation and pummeled the windward sides of buildings. There was an unconfirmed report of an oblong hailstone over 6 inches long ad 4 inches wide that landed in the bed of a pickup near Okarche.
1998	October 4	A tornado outbreak produced 27 tornadoes in Oklahoma - a national record for tornadoes in any state on a single day in October.
1999	May 3	A major tornado outbreak produced at least 66 tornadoes occurred in Oklahoma, making this by far the most prolific tornado outbreak in state history. The previous record for a single event was 28. At least 16 of the tornadoes were rated F2 or greater, 10 were rated F3 or greater, 4 were F4 or greater, and one ? the Bridge Creek/Moore/Oklahoma City tornado - was rated F5. The latter killed 36 people, making it the 6th deadliest single tornado in Oklahoma history. A total of 40 people were killed.
2000	December 25-27	An ice storm in south central and southeastern Oklahoma left widespread ice accumulations of 1-2 inches, downing thousands of trees and damaging or destroying thousands of homes, vehicles, and utility poles. At its peak, 170,000 residents were without power, many for nearly a week. In some cases it took years to clean up and remove downed trees and limbs. Some reports suggest that trees and limbs that were damaged in 2000 still can be identified today.
2002	January 29-31	An ice storm in western and northern Oklahoma left widespread ice accumulations of 1 to 2 inches. Rows of icicles hanging from power lines and exposed structures often were more than a foot long. Nearly 250,000 residents were without power at the peak of the storm, and some were without commercial power for weeks. This, the third major ice storm in the state in 15 years, was likely the costliest as damage estimates exceeded 300 million dollars.
2005-2006	December-March	Wildfires were widespread as a result of persistent dry, windy, and warm conditions. In excess of a quarter million acres were burned, and hundreds of homes and other structures were evacuated. One firefighter died and severe others were injured while fighting the fires.
2007	May-July	Flooding was widespread across the state, as the dry pattern of the previous several years reversed completely and led to record rainfall over several months.
2007	August 19	Wind and flooding occurred in many parts of Oklahoma as the remnants of tropical storm Erin, after weakening and drifting through Texas, reintensified over Oklahoma 2 days after landfall and hundreds of miles from the nearest source of warm water. The unprecedented evolution of this storm system during the early morning hours is still being researched, and likely will be studied for years to come.
For more information about Oklahoma weather history...visit our website at weather.gov/norman.

100 Years of Oklahoma Weather