CRLT - Climate Impacts in Oklahoma

Climate Impacts in Oklahoma

It is valuable to note Oklahoma’s somewhat unique geographical layout, being composed of five different eco-regions, each with its own climate advantages and disadvantages. This means considerable disparity in how and to what degree a warming climate impacts the humid, forested southeastern part of the state versus the arid scrubgrass plateaus in the northwestern Panhandle.

The impact of climate warming has, thus far, been fairly kind to the state of Oklahoma, with a few notable exceptions. When connecting climate warming to the experience of weather here, the expected result of much hotter summers over longer periods of time have yet to develop. Indeed, along with a handful of other Southern states whose northern borders touch the nation’s mid-section, the overall climate (as measured by the average annual temperature) over the past century has either remained flat or slightly cooled. That said, the past twenty years have reversed this general cooling trend with strong warming trends recorded between 2003-2006, 2009-2012, and 2014-2016, with the highest year in this period (2014, 63 F) going above record totals from the historically hot 1930s and 1950s (Oklahoma Climatological Survey).

The first two decades of the 21st century have been something of a mixed bag, which is another way of saying either feast or famine, in regard to precipitation. Nine of the twenty years have notched lower than average precipitation levels statewide, with a marked four-year drought between 2010-2013 but also the highest year for annual precipitation on record in 2015. By way of demonstrating the radical disparities between different regions, the southeast region received 50” more rain in 2015 than the Panhandle, despite the year seeing record precipitation for both regions  (Oklahoma Climatological Survey).

Of course, the extreme weather events most commonly associated with Oklahoma are tornadoes. Given the association between cluster tornadoes and a warming climate, it should come as no surprise that half of the years with the greatest number of annual tornadoes from the past fifty years have occurred in the last ten. In fact, the highest recorded annual occurrence of tornadoes came in 2019 at 149, an increase of more than 50% over the second highest year. (National Weather Service)

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a warming climate will mean both higher annual temperatures in Oklahoma as well as more extreme weather events including rain bombs, flooding, drought, and tornadoes. Oklahoma is also a state that sees a wide fluctuation between winter and summer temperatures, meaning that it is profoundly reliant on energy to power both heat and cooling units to make most homes livable. Increased energy demand during those periods will disproportionately affect less affluent Oklahomans in urban and rural areas alike. However, disruptions in agricultural production stemming from an unstable climate, rising temperature, and extreme weather events will have a more direct impact on rural Oklahomans, who already make up the largest percentage of the economically unprivileged in the state.

References

Environmental Protection Agency. What Climate Change Means for Oklahoma. Retrieved from https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-ok.pdf

Oklahoma Climatological Survey. Climate data. Retrieved from
https://climate.ok.gov/index.php/climate/climate_trends/precipitation_history_annual_statewide/CD01/prcp/Annual

National Weather Service. Monthly/Annual statistics for Tornadoes in Oklahoma (1950-Present). Retrieved from https://www.weather.gov/oun/tornadodata-ok-monthlyannual

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