Located in the heart of Tornado Alley, there have been 117 tornadoes recorded in Oklahoma City since 1890.
In 1991, researchers at the National Weather Service office in Norman Oklahoma began a project to update the list of tornadoes that have struck Oklahoma City. They found that records kept prior to 1950 did not track weak tornadoes. For some reason, there were less stringent records maintained in the late 1970s to the very early 1990s.
In addition to using data from the Weather Service Forecasting Office in Oklahoma City, they relied on books written by Tom Grazulis who is a weather historian. In his two books “Significant Tornadoes 1680 – 1991” and “Significant Tornado Update 1992-1995”, Tom has recorded over 50,000 tornadoes occurring in the US.
In the end, the research team recorded 117 tornadoes, their path, their strength, time and date they struck, death toll and the damage sustained.
Here are some interesting discoveries they made about tornadoes that hit Oklahoma City:
- Tornadoes frequently hit in a period starting mid-afternoon to early evening with the most violent storms hitting between 6:00pm to 7:00pm.
- A higher number of tornadoes passed through the south end of Oklahoma City.
- Approximately two thirds of all tornadoes struck during the months of April through June with April being the peak month.
- No tornadoes have been recorded in December and January.
- The highest of number of tornadoes in a single day was June 8, 1974 where 5 tornadoes were recorded.
Good news:
Tornadoes don’t strike Oklahoma City every year. There was a 5 year and 8 month reprieve from October 8 1992 to June 12 1998 with two 2-year and 3-year breaks to 2003.
Bad News:
When the 5 year tornado-free period ended, there were 11 tornadoes that hit Oklahoma City over the next 11 months.
Hats off to the brave people of Oklahoma City who live in the Tornado Capital of the World!
