With a couple of weeks left to go, preliminary data from the Oklahoma Mesonet are painting the final picture of a wet and mild 2008 for Oklahoma. Bolstered by an extremely wet northeast corner, the statewide average precipitation total for Oklahoma stands at more than 36 inches, or about an inch above normal. This ranks the year as the 27th wettest since 1921. The statewide average temperature was 60.6 degrees, which is just a tad above normal.

Statewide extremes consist of a 110-degree temperature reading at Freedom on August 4. The state’s lowest recorded temperature of -4 degrees occurred at Boise City on January 17. The Oklahoma Mesonet site at Jay had the highest precipitation total at 66.52 inches. The lowest total of 12.5 inches was reported at Kenton in the far western Panhandle.

The statewide averages are made up of regional averages, of course, and they don’t adequately depict the variety of weather our state saw in 2008. Included in that above-normal statewide precipitation total is a devastating drought in the western Oklahoma Panhandle, which abated in late summer, and a burgeoning drought in south central Oklahoma. The northeast region was, on average, more than 12 inches above normal, while south central sections were nearly 8 inches below normal.

Preliminary data from the National Weather Service lists 77 tornadoes touching down in Oklahoma during 2008, compared to the 1950-2007 average of 53. Breaking those numbers down, 65 of those twisters were weak EF0-1 tornadoes, 10 were rated as EF2, and one each rated EF3 and EF4. Included in those numbers were a rare November tornado and an even rarer December tornado.