Oil and gas workers, utility line crews and those maintaining Oklahoma’s wind farms ducked more than the usual number of tornadoes in the month of June.
The latest figures from the Oklahoma Mesonet indicate that the 8 tornadoes reported to have touched down in June brought a 2019 total to 115.
Oklahoma Climatologist Gary McManus says that’s the third highest for Oklahoma since records began in 1950.
“Only 1999’s count of 145 and 2011’s 119 rank higher,” he wrote in his update this week. “Regardless of the total, 2019’s tornadoes have been particularly costly to lives and property. This year’s tornadoes killed four and injured another 41, and produced significant property and infrastructure damage in their wake. ”
June rainfall was nothing compared to May but McManus reported that the combined total for May and June resulted in a statewide average of 15.52 inches, the fifth wettest on record.
As far as the drought—-what drought? No drought conditions have been reported in Oklahoma since the March U.S. Drought Monitor. It is the longest period of drought inactivity in the state since the 38 consecutive drought-free weeks between mid-September 2009 and June 2010.
