Severe Weather Returns As Oklahoma Nears One Of Its Quietest Mays Ever

Even though Oklahoma has had an almost perfect May weather-wise, our most historically active weather month isn't going quietly into the night. While marginal at best, severe weather is back on tap throughout the Sooner State tonight and tomorrow night.

At the moment, Oklahoma is sitting at two likely tornadoes for the month. Not a record low, but it might as well be. The only other years this quiet were 1988 - which also had two twisters during May - and 2005 that went unbelievably without a single funnel cloud.

Since the two 'naders the National Weather Service is surveying now happened in storms that still wouldn't pass for "severe," all eyes are on tonight and Saturday as we close the month.

Friday Severe

As our next storm complex sweeps into the state from the Southwest, storms are likely to fire up in SWOK, Central, and the Southern areas of the state.

This isn't a typical storm system either. This is a jet stream sweeping up out of Baja Mexico, and it'll most likely organize a few storms while coming through.

Like we've had all week, the odds of severe weather are marginal at best, but it's May in Oklahoma. Anything is possible. The thing to look forward to is rain. We'll hope for some good soakers to help pull us out of our drought.

https://www.weather.gov/oun/

Saturday Severe

The weekend looks like it might have better conditions for stronger storms, even though the risks are still on the lower side.

Rain, yes. Hail. Large. Tornadoes... Eh... The forecasts haven't been very accurate so far this year, why would anyone put stock into the possibilities now? It's almost as if the TV stations figured out they can say "tornado" and get an instant boost in ratings.

The Meteorologist Who Cried, Wolf

To be fair, even the National Weather Service has had a rough go at predicting weather this spring. They call for twisters and they don't happen. They say tornado risks are at a minimum, and Enid gets rolled over by the most picturesque and destructive twister of the year. They seem to be dropping out of the clouds this year when tornado conditions are at the lowest predicted risk... Hence the two non-severe May 2026 twisters NWS is examining at the moment.

Don't count Saturday out yet. More rain, a larger complex of storms are in the computer models. Thankfully, though, they're expected to die out and become nothing more than rain as the sun sets into the evening.

https://www.weather.gov/oun/

Still, to only have two twisters across Oklahoma in the month of May is stellar. Best likely outcome for our state. It might not seem that way to the few families who took the beating, but an amazing phenomenon indeed.

I'd rank it right up there with Summer 2020 when the average high temp across the state was in the upper 80s all season long.