Triple Digits Today But Winter Is Knocking On Oklahoma’s Door

Here we are again... Oklahoma is cooking like a delicious, pillowy piece of frybread. Entering the higher triple digits over the next few days, and the wind is like a hair dryer as if Oklahoma will never get cold again, but, like clockwork, the chaos that is the inevitably first good freeze is closer than you think.

As weird as this summer has been so far, I'd wager that the freeze will show up a lot sooner than it does in most years.

Depending on where you are in the state, Oklahoma’s first freeze can arrive anytime between the second week of October and mid-November.

The Panhandle gets its first frost before Halloween candy even hits the shelves. Central Oklahoma sees its first 32° night around late October or early November. And those of us down South and East usually hold onto the growing season until mid-to-late November.

While we've fried Thanksgiving turkey in shorts and tees before, that's the normal starting point for the bitter cold in SWOK. The almanac agrees.

Now, these are just averages. And as we've discussed already, 2025 has not been an average year at all.

If you’ve lived here more than five minutes, you already know Oklahoma weather doesn’t care about averages. One year it’s snowing before football playoffs, the next year you’re still wearing flip-flops at Christmas dinner.

Hedging the early first freeze bets. 

The last mild summer Oklahoma experienced was in 2020. That's about as similar as we'll get. 2020 had exactly 1 day over 100° in Oklahoma, way down here in SWOK, but it was mainly low to mid 90s with ample rainfall the entire summer.

What does that have to do with the first freeze? I'll tell you.

Roll back your memory to October of 2020. The Sooner State had a record widespread and incredibly early ice storm. The leaves were still on the trees, the cleanup was overwhelming, and debris lingered through the next spring.

So while we’re all currently melting into our car seats and pretending "It's not the heat, it's the humidity," just know that in about 60 days—give or take a cold front—you’ll probably be muttering about how it’s “too early for the cold.”