Farmers Almanac Predicts A Cold, But Normal, Winter In Oklahoma

Farmers Almanac and Oklahoma have a uniquely at-odds relationship with each other. FA usually makes big bold claims about the pending long-term forecast and the Sooner State usually just does its own thing. The forecast is never wrong... it's the weather that just doesn't seem to cooperate as it should.

For instance, if you were to go back a few years in recent history, you'll read past predictions of a scorching and extremely dry 2021 summer season... but 2021 was relatively wet and seasonably acceptable. I think we only had two or three days over 100° last year.

Winter 2020 was predicted to be warmer above average and dry, but that was the year of the three-week February blizzard the whole state is still paying for. Winter 2016 was supposed to be brutally cold and snowy... but who else remembers mowing grass on a hot 91° February Saturday afternoon? The revered Farmers Almanac is spotty at best...

All the same, I know I had a field day with the "extremely cold and icy" 2021 winter prediction, but so did everyone else. We had a Christmas taco fiesta picnic in the backyard wearing shorts and t-shirts... but then mother nature had a wild New Year's Eve swing and proceeded to dump ice and snow on us every two weeks for four months.

Farmers Almanac got a little vindication earlier this year. They also pretty much nailed the summer 2022 extended forecast in the depths of all that snowy cold too.

Riding high on their back-to-back accurate forecasts, the almanac is doubling-down on winter 2022, but it expects normal seasonal conditions rather than another deep plunge into arctic conditions.

If you haven't been in Oklahoma long and are wondering what a normal winter is like in Oklahoma, relax. It's nothing like it has been in the last two years.

While winter doesn't technically start until just before Christmas, the cooler air usually arrives in Southwest Oklahoma right around Thanksgiving and lingers around until late-February. It's normally an ideal "winter."

Normal overnight lows usually stay just above freezing, but a dip below 32° here and there isn't out of the question. Normal winter daily high's usually hit somewhere in the mid-50s, occasionally a random 60-ish here and there.

Normal precipitation is one or two sleet/snow storms that last a day, maybe two. At least one ice storm that can hit anywhere from mid-October through early April right before the first summer makes a mid-spring visit.

All in all, a regular seasonably cool, mild winter is one forecast I feel we're all hoping for these days. Now, if we could go ahead and move straight into an actual fall season, that'd be just great.