The combination of warm, dry and breezy conditions created favorable conditions for fire starts and spread.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS OUN wrote it up.
The combination of warm, dry and breezy conditions created favorable conditions for fire starts and spread.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Norman, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 6, 3:16 PM CST, 1 hour 44 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Norman OK 316 PM CST Wed Mar 6 2024 ...New SHORT TERM, LONG TERM... .SHORT TERM... (This evening through Thursday) Issued at 315 PM CST Wed Mar 6 2024 Diurnal heating may initiate severe storms over northcentral Texas late this afternoon which could move into a few of our western north Texas counties through early evening. However confidence is very low it affect our counties in western north Texas, so will start low storm POPs along and south of the Red River toward late evening and if should the develop could produce low end severe hail and wind gusts. After midnight, a couple of mechanisms will increase rain/storm chances across our area. In the mid-levels, there is a deep trough over the West Coast through southern California. A series of shortwaves will be dispersed downflow of the trough and over the Southern Plains. We could see the first series of vorticity embedded shortwaves just after midnight. All models suggest MUCAPE values will provide ample instability for elevated storms steered by our southwesterly flow aloft. In addition to elevated storms, a strong low-level jet will fire up tonight with a lifting warm frontal passage underneath. Models showing strong isentropic lift on the 300K surface (around 850 mb) so warm air advection on the front will be adequate for precipitating low-level moisture. The lower- levels should stay stable until much later in the day, so would see more widespread rain after midnight with the warm air advection. As a result, will see increasing rain POPs overnight with additional elevated storms possible but should remain well below severe. The increasing low-level moisture overnight will sharpen a dryline extending across western Texas up through the Panhandle which will start punching through our western CWA through Thursday morning while our other surface boundary (warm front) is expected stall out along our northern Oklahoma/Kansas border meeting a nearly stalled cold front coming down from a separate Canadian system. We will continue to see more widespread rain showers with isolated elevated storms east of the dryline to south of the warm front from warm air advection through noontime Thursday, but could see a lull in the early afternoon hours. However, surface-based instability starts ramping up with decreasing cloudiness in the afternoon and diurnal heating, while mid-level lapse rates begin steepening from cooling with the approaching upper trough. As a result, we could see storms firing up late afternoon through the evening hours and deep-layer shear will be sufficient for organized severe storms with large hail and damaging wind gusts as the potential hazards. Western Oklahoma and western north Texas both near the dryline could see up to golf ball size hail into the evening hours. && .LONG TERM... (Thursday night through next Tuesday) Issued at 315 PM CST Wed Mar 6 2024 The upper trough from this Pacific system will start coming through on Friday which will push a nearly stalled cold front across our area. Storm POPs will remain on Friday as this system moves through, and could see a final round of large hail producing severe storms during the afternoon in the warm moist sector ahead of the cold front. There is some uncertainty of the exact location of the frontal boundary by early afternoon, but for now see it east of I-35 through southeast Oklahoma where this severe risk will be. There could be some wrap-around precipitation as the system move out so will keep POPs in through midnight across all but southwest Oklahoma and northern Texas. Friday evenings precipitation will be mostly rain, but far northwest Oklahoma could see a brief changeover to snow with the cold air coming down the Central Plains. Although our end of the week weathermaker will be from a subtropical Pacific-based system, we'll see a quick dose of cold Canadian air behind the cold front as the surface high will be up in North Dakota. It will be windy although below advisory criteria on Friday night behind the cold front, but will see wind chills down in the 20s across our area. The Southern Plains will still be under the exiting upper trough on Saturday with decreasing northerly winds as it will be a cooler than average day with highs in the 50s. High pressure settles in for a second but colder night on Saturday, although less wind chill but more stronger radiational cooling with much of our area dropping down to or below freezing. South winds gradually return Sunday afternoon with the start of a warming trend as temperatures become slightly warmer than average. Upper ridge starts building in early next week as south winds increase with mild temperatures as our warming trend continues. Models suggest another Pacific-system coming through bringing rain chances back into the forecast by the middle of next week. && .AVIATION... (18Z TAFS) Issued at 1137 AM CST Wed Mar 6 2024 IFR/MVFR ceilings at KPNC/KSWO are expected to linger into the afternoon and gradually diminish late afternoon or early evening. Tonight, chances for showers and thunderstorms spread northward with a progressive warm front. LLWS is also possible for central and southern TAF sites early Thursday morning. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Oklahoma City OK 55 73 51 59 / 40 40 70 50 Hobart OK 53 75 47 56 / 20 30 40 40 Wichita Falls TX 59 74 54 64 / 40 50 30 30 Gage OK 46 73 36 48 / 10 10 40 50 Ponca City OK 50 73 48 56 / 30 80 80 60 Durant OK 59 69 57 71 / 60 70 80 50 && .OUN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... OK...None. TX...None. && SHORT TERM...68 LONG TERM....68 AVIATION...01
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Norman OK 347 PM CST Wed Mar 6 2024 OKZ004>048-050>052-TXZ083>090-072200- Harper-Woods-Alfalfa-Grant-Kay-Ellis-Woodward-Major-Garfield- Noble-Roger Mills-Dewey-Custer-Blaine-Kingfisher-Logan-Payne- Beckham-Washita-Caddo-Canadian-Oklahoma-Lincoln-Grady-McClain- Cleveland-Pottawatomie-Seminole-Hughes-Harmon-Greer-Kiowa-Jackson- Tillman-Comanche-Stephens-Garvin-Murray-Pontotoc-Coal-Cotton- Jefferson-Carter-Johnston-Atoka-Love-Marshall-Bryan-Hardeman- Foard-Wilbarger-Wichita-Knox-Baylor-Archer-Clay- 347 PM CST Wed Mar 6 2024 This hazardous weather outlook is for portions of northern... western...central...and southern Oklahoma...and western north Texas. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight... .Thunderstorms... Thunderstorms will be possible late this evening and overnight across northern, central, southern and southeast Oklahoma and western north Texas. Storms are expected to be elevated and below severe. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Thursday through Tuesday... .Thunderstorms... Thunderstorms will be possible Thursday and Friday. Storms during the morning and early afternoon will be elevated and remain below severe. However, some of the storms could become severe by late Thursday afternoon into the evening hours with up to golf ball size hail and damaging wind gusts as the potential severe hazards. The severe risk on Friday afternoon will be generally across southeast Oklahoma with large hail as the severe hazard. Get graphics and more details at weather.gov/norman...and follow our weather forecast office on Twitter and Facebook.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
The 'Cooper WMA Fire' spread over 2,412 acres across northwestern Woodward County.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oklahoma in 2024Every state in 2024This day in weather historyWarnings in Oklahoma, March 2024
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1166125.