Tulsa Hail Climatology

Tulsa, Oklahoma
Hail(1950-1997)

The following table lists the occurrences of hail since 1950 at the Tulsa International Airport - the site of the official weather observation for the Tulsa metropolitan area. Although the occurrence of hail varies widely from place to place, this table is meant to illustrate the frequency of hail at any specific location in the area. Since hail, by nature, is a fairly isolated event, it often occurs in one area of the city while completely missing another area, and vice versa. But by using nearly 50 years of data, this table is meant to represent an overall average for any single location in the Tulsa metropolitan area.

Tulsa, OK - Hail Occurrences by Month and Year

  YEARS      Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec  Total
  1995-*      0   0   0   0   0   1   1   0   0   0   1   0      3
  1990-94     0   0   0   5   1   2   1   0   1   1   1   0     12
  1985-89     0   0   3   1   2   0   0   0   0   0   3   0      9
  1980-84     0   0   1   2   4   1   0   1   1   0   0   0     10
  1975-79     0   0   0   3   1   3   0   0   0   0   1   1      9
  1970-74     0   0   1   3   5   2   0   0   1   1   0   1     14
  1965-69     1   1   1   6   5   3   0   1   0   0   1   0     19
  1960-64     0   2   1   7   5   2   1   0   0   0   0   0     18
  1955-59     2   1   3   5   4   2   0   0   0   0   0   0     17
  1950-54     0   0   5   5   6   0   1   1   1   1   0   0     20
  ------------------------------------------------------------------
  -TOTALS     3   4  15  37  33  16   4   3   4   3   7   2    131
  -YEARLY
    AVERAGE  .1  .1  .3  .6  .6  .3  .1  .1  .1  .1  .2   0    2.3
  -MONTHLY
    CHANCE    5%  7% 25% 64% 57% 28%  7%  5%  7%  5%  12% 4% 


  * - Data through December 1997.  Hail was recorded in the official
      totals together with snow and sleet in years before 1956 and 
      again from 1989 to the present.  For the purpose of this table, 
      snow and sleet were filtered from the totals and only hail 
      events were used.

Using the data from the table, any specific location in the Tulsa metropolitan area can expect to receive hail an average of two to three times each year. Hail has been reported in every month, with the highest frequency during the transitional months in the spring. The peak time of year falls right in the middle of that transition period from mid-April to mid-May. Another small peak occurs in November as the weather pattern transitions back into winter.