April was a tumultuous month for weather in Oklahoma, containing everything from a wheat-devastating hard freeze to significant tornadoes to a 500-year rainfall event. The rainfall in general was a drought-buster, and the month finished as the 17th wettest across the state since 1895. The temperatures were cool due to the rains and the incursion of some very cold air masses, ranking as the 50th coolest April on record. Preliminary data place the tornado count at 16 for the month, with five of those twisters considered significant (EF-2 or greater). A cold snap early in the month damaged the state's drought-stressed wheat crop, especially in southern Oklahoma where temperatures plunged into the teens. Non-thunderstorm winds of greater than 70 mph contributed to extreme wildfire conditions early in the month and many homes and structures were destroyed. An outflow boundary on the 29th produced wave after wave of thunderstorms along the Red River and the Oklahoma Mesonet site at Burneyville had a front-row seat. The 12.42 inches of rainfall broke several records, including the daily and monthly record at Burneyville and the Mesonet daily rainfall amount network-wide for any day since its inception in 1994. The deluge also eclipsed several return-period rain levels, such as the 500-year 1-day, 24-hour and 12-hour amounts.

Full monthly summary available online at:
http://climate.mesonet.org/monthly_summary.html