On the heels of second-coldest April on record in Oklahoma, May was the hottest ever for the state.

 

Oklahoma State Climatologist Gary McManus says the statewide average temperature for May was 74.6 degrees, breaking the record of 74 degrees set in 1962. The data dates to 1895.

 

 McManus says the jet stream lifted northward weeks earlier than normal, leaving the state hotter and drier. Daytime highs consistently reached the 90s, with a high of 104 in Grandfield in southwestern Oklahoma on the final day of the month.

 

The western third of Oklahoma and the Panhandle remain in extreme to exceptional drought as do large areas of New Mexico and Arizona and portions of Colorado, Kansas, Texas and Utah.