Why Oklahoma’s Drought Is Getting Worse Despite All the Storms

After what seemed like an endless lineup of stormy weekends that dropped normal, average rainfall across most of Oklahoma, the drought is still worsening. Now the driest we've been in three years.

Is this just the tip of the next big drought?

Here's what things look like at the moment.

The first pockets of the worst classification, Exceptional Drought, are starting to appear in Western OK.

This lines up with the rainfall these last few months too.

If you consider I-44 from Texas to OKC, and I-35 from OKC to the Kansas border the dividing line, those on the western side have received lesser rain, 3-5 inches on average across this area, 0-1 inch in the driest places.

But on the Eastern side of that line, the average is 9 inches of rain. Still not enough, but on a three-month average, you would think good enough. But comparing the three-month change in drought, it's just a drop in the bucket for what Oklahoma needs right now.

The biggest issue is the incredibly warm and dry winter we had across the plains this year.

Even though the incredibly wet spring and summer of 2025 were enough to wipe out that drought across the state, the incremental rains we had sporadically between October and March were well below average.

The abnormally quiet May most of Oklahoma has had so far is even stranger, but the current forecast is calling for our normal spring severe weather to return with fury.