Rain, cool temperatures break heat wave in Oklahoma

The rain and cooler weather prompted the city to rescind mandatory water rationing Thursday.

The break in the heat came as authorities announced the heat wave had claimed another life, the 16th heat-related death of the year in the state.

Archie Carter, 91, of Bartlesville, died Aug. 5. He was found on the lawn of a nursing home, said Cherokee Ballard, spokeswoman for the state medical examiner's office.

It's not unusual for Oklahoma to see 100-degree temperatures during the summer, but typically cold fronts move through and drop temperatures into the low 90s for a few days as well. That hadn't happened so far this summer.

Oklahoma City has seen 46 days of 100-degree temperatures, closing in on a 1980 record of 50 days of triple-digit temperatures. Oklahoma's July was the hottest on record for any state in the U.S. since record-keeping began in 1895.

Forecasters said the continuous heat has been a matter of bad luck, as the cool fronts that normally move through Oklahoma simply weren't making it that far south this summer.

So what changed this week?

“Here in central Oklahoma, we've been lucky enough to get the benefit of some cold fronts,” National Weather Service forecaster Daryl Williams said. “South of the Red River, they are still 110 or 111 degrees practically every day.”

Sustained rain Thursday morning brought nearly half an inch in rainfall at Will Rogers World Airport. Although one or two rainstorms won't solve a record drought in the state, the rain has helped to cool off temperatures.

“It's kind of feeding on itself,” Williams said. “Cloud cover and rainfall cools the air and the ground.”

Storm systems also have made their way into the state from southwestern Kansas and the Texas Panhandle, Williams said. It's not a trend forecasters expect will continue, but it at least has given Oklahomans a break from what could go down as the worst heat wave in state history.