Rainfall totals statewide for May 1-22. Map provided by the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. The lack of rain has led to a lack of tornadoes this month.
Two is not a typo. Two is the total, total tornadoes in the month of May for Oklahoma overall.
Oklahoma Climatological Survey associate state climatologist Gary McManus said that both were on May 1, and were an EF1 in Nowata County
and an EF2 in Craig County.
Is this normal for May? Hardly, McManus said. Oklahoma has recorded two or less tornadoes in May only twice:
0 tornadoes: 2005
2 tornadoes: 1988
4 tornadoes: 1958, 1967, 2006, 2009
But, our state has preliminarily recorded 50 tornadoes so far this calendar year as of May 22, McManus said. This is just shy of Oklahoma's average annual total of 55.
I was lamenting last week that we might be on the dawn of another drought as Tulsa has only recorded 0.15 of an inch of rain so far in May, more than 3 inches below normal for this time of the month.
However, McManus said that the dry weather has a welcomed side-effect: Fewer tornadoes.
"There just haven't been enough of the right ingredients with May's storms to get tornadic supercells," McManus said. "The result is one of our quietest Mays on record as far as tornadoes go."
State records on tornadoes go back to 1950, when accurate statistics begin, McManus said.
So, something positive to take away from our lack of precipitation.
--Althea Peterson
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
