Southern parts of Oklahoma get record-setting rains in September

A weather recording station in south central Oklahoma received more than 14 inches of rain in a single day last month, setting records, the Oklahoma Climatological Survey said Monday.

The Oklahoma Mesonet’s site at Fittstown — about 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City in Pontotoc County — recorded 14.2 inches of rain on Sept. 21.

That is the secondhighest daily total observed in the state since individual station records began in the 1880s and the highest total in the 25-year history of the Mesonet, said state climatologist Gary McManus.

“Enid remains in the top historical spot with 15.68 inches on Oct. 11, 1973, while the Mesonet’s previous record of 12.42 inches at Burneyville (on the Texas border) on April 29, 2009, was easily bested,” he said.

South central Oklahoma’s average of 11.04 inches was 7.11 inches above normal, the wettest September on record for that section of the state, McManus said.

“Many of Oklahoma’s most extreme rainfall events have occurred during the fall, the result of a rare conjunction of meteorological ingredients converging over the Southern Plains,” he said.

“Those ingredients — the remnants of a Pacific tropical system, a stalled front and abundant moisture from the Gulf of Mexico — came together late in the month to produce massive rainfall totals across south central Oklahoma.”

Statewide, heavy rains during the first week combined with a later storm system to produce an average total of 5.21 inches, a surplus of 1.68 inches, ranking it as the 19th wettest September since climate division records began in 1895.

Ironically, northeast Oklahoma’s average of 2.9 inches was 1.6 inches below normal, the 48th driest on record, he said.

Drought coverage dropped from 55 percent of the state at the beginning of August to 9 percent at the end of September.

Two core areas of drought remained — across far southwestern Oklahoma and a smaller area centered on eastern Osage and southern Washington counties.

The October outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) indicate increased odds of above normal temperatures across the entire state, but especially eastern Oklahoma, and above normal precipitation.

“Given those outlooks, CPC’s October Drought Outlook sees improvement across the remaining drought areas in Oklahoma by the end of October,” McManus said.