Oklahoma State Parks

[garmp]

DW & I were half planning our mid year trip for 2021 and she suggested Oklahoma as we have never really spent much time in that state. Then I looked at the weather history and they average over 57 tornadoes a year. (link) That's better than one a week average, granted they do not occur every week.
Question is which month do you feel is the safest? And what part of the state? We were thinking late July of maybe early August. Also which is your favorite state park?
thanks

[ken56]

Lived in the Tulsa area for nearly 2 years going to school there. Just want to say pay attention the sirens if they do go off. Don't dally in getting to safe shelter. Just keep an eye on the weather report and have the weather radar up on your phone in times of questionable weather.

While there I saw 2 tornados and they are nothing to mess with. I had a 1963 Chrysler New Yorker at the time (this was in the 70's) and it went through more than a few hail storms. One storm had golf ball sized hail and all my neighbors cars were dented up like mad. That 'real car' New Yorker not a single dent. That's when they used real American steel in cars.

[OkieGene]

^^^^^^ What he said, Red Rock Canyon is awesome.

The tornado season is basically all of May into June. That's the time when everyone has the TV on in the background tuned to a local TV station.

After the middle of June into July tornado season is pretty much over with, but there is always a possibility of tornados year around.

Oh, and BTW, tornado season means hail season. May through the middle of June is a much higher chance of hail.

I'd have no reservations (no pun intended) exploring Oklahoma until the 1st of May and after the 1st of July.

Oklahoma is a very diverse state, georgraphically speaking. Look up Cross Timbers Of America.

One very interesting place is in the panhandle, the Black Mesa area. If you want some peace and quiet in a beautiful area, go visit Black Mesa. There are not a lot of services there, so be prepared to be stocked up and provisioned. If you are into Astronomy, or ham radio, this is the place to be, it's very dark sky territory as well as low electrical noise.

[QCMan]

If you want a unique experience, try a few days at Red Rock Canyon State Park. Beautiful, tranquil and the owls will serenade you every night. A bit steep on the entry road but it looks worse than it is.

[agesilaus]

My understanding of big tornadoes is that they are formed when warm air from the Gulf hit a cold front. This may help: Tornado incidence by month and state

You can see which states are the worst and which months. Apr, May, Jun and the Midwest no surprise. We actually saw one when we were at an RV park in Kansas years ago, big black funnel, very impressive, off to the east but it gave us a miss. My daughter demanded a Dorothy teeshirt after that...heh.

[MarkTwain]

garmp wrote:
DW & I were half planning our mid year trip for 2021 and she suggested Oklahoma as we have never really spent much time in that state. Then I looked at the weather history and they average over 57 tornadoes a year. (link) That's better than one a week average, granted they do not occur every week.
Question is which month do you feel is the safest? And what part of the state? We were thinking late July of maybe early August. Also which is your favorite state park?
thanks

I lived in Okla. for 2 yrs as a kid. Not to cast aspirations, but I would pick another state to RV in. If you bent on going to Okla. make sure you have a weather radio that gives you up to date weather conditions in your RV. For additional insurance, I would buy a good CB radio with a Wilson antenna that has Weather conditions in the area you are RVing in. Got caught in a hail storm in Texas and in 15 min. I had $15K damage to my truck and trailer:(:(:(

[wanderingaimles]

Knowing that you have access, make it a "roaming" visit.
Sprend a few days at a state park or two. But then, check out the Fam Camps. Oklahoma has 7 Military campgrounds, check them out too.
Fam camps

[trailernovice]

12/3/20
Can't speak to most of your questions....probably the whole state is tornado-prone, and quick google search should be able to locate information re. worst weather month

Been to two OK state parks...Lake Thunderbird (just went last week) and Keystone Lake (twice)...all trips over a Thanksgiving weekend...

Both are pretty standard state parks, with the expected atmosphere and amenities.as shown by the names, both are on a lake...both also have marinas (although Thunderbird's seems to be accessible only to slip renters)

Word of caution...the reservation system doesn't make it easy to tell what's on each site...we went with the Hog Creek loop at Thunrderbird, which we discovered upon arrival (to our disappointment) had water only every other site (a shared spigot) and our particular site was basically a blocked-off space at the edge of a parking lot...the other loops were traditional and have standard hookups