Oklahoma’s January 2023 may have begun with a springlike bang, but it ended with a more appropriate wintry punch. Warm weather dominated the first three weeks of the month, and was on pace to become one of the warmest Januarys on record before winter crashed the party. The early springlike weather also brought Oklahoma its earliest tornadoes within the calendar year since accurate records began in 1950. On Jan. 2, severe storms developed across northeastern Oklahoma and quickly became tornadic, producing five confirmed tornadoes according to the National Weather Service.

December provided a fitting end to Oklahoma’s tumultuous 2022 weather story. This final chapter came complete with a half-dozen tornadoes, the coldest December day in 32 years, and the finishing touches on an all-time Oklahoma rainfall record. The Oklahoma Mesonet site at Goodwell finished 2022 with 6.48 inches of rain, breaking the previous all-time lowest annual rainfall record for any location in Oklahoma of 6.53 inches from Regnier in 1956. Those data go back to the late 1880s.

Oklahoma’s extended spate of warmer than normal weather—which began in early June and continued largely uninterrupted for the next five months—came to an abrupt halt on Nov. 10 following a clash with the season’s first true arctic cold front. Highs in the 70s and 80s those first 10 days of November were soon replaced with highs in the 40s and 50s, and low temperatures below freezing more often than not. Any hint of a return to the weather’s previous mild ways was quashed by recurring cold fronts throughout the rest of the month.

Drought held on through October in Oklahoma for the fifteenth consecutive month, its roots dating back to August 2021 and boosted by additional flash drought conditions beginning in June 2022. The drought’s severity and coverage peaked in mid-October, its impacts varied and extreme. Dead and dormant vegetation led to almost daily fights with wildfires for fire departments in all regions of the state.

Drought surged across Oklahoma as the driest September since 1956 took its toll on the state’s landscape. The amount of drought in the state remained largely unchanged through September at approximately 99%, but the intensity of that drought increased dramatically according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Extreme and exceptional drought, the Drought Monitor’s two worst categories, jumped from 47% on Aug. 30 to 64% at the end of September, the highest such levels seen in the state since Feb. 19, 2013. Exceptional drought alone rose to 17%, its highest level since May 8, 2018.

August’s heat and drought appeared ferocious at first, with widespread triple-digit temperatures and moisture deficits throughout the first half of the month. A strong cold front signaled a pattern change, however, and the heat settled into more seasonable levels for the last half of the month. On the whole, August was still well above normal and contributed to the hottest climatological summer seen in the state since 2011.

The seemingly impenetrable heat wave and dry spell that had punished Oklahoma since early June continued through nearly all of July, giving Oklahoma the type of scorching hot weather unseen in the state since the brutal summers of 2011 and 2012. A strong cold front snuck through the heat dome’s defenses near the end of the month to bring some relief, but the damage was done. The combination of hot weather, a lack of significant moisture, and relentless sunshine combined to plunge Oklahoma into flash drought that had covered the entire state by the end of July.