£361+ Cheap flights to Oklahoma

Oklahoma climate

Oklahoma has cold winters and hot summers. January temperatures range from about -6 (Celsius) to 4 degrees or so. By May it is warming up to mid 20s, and August can go into the 30s. September is cooler, and October temperatures range from the 10s to low 20s.Typical Oklahoma weather is dry and sunny. Precipitation varies from about 38cm (15 inches) in the panhandle to more than 127cm (50 inches) in the southeast. Oklahoma City gets about 23cm (9 inches) of snowfall and is one of the windiest cities in the US.Most of Oklahoma’s severe weather is in the form of high winds. Oklahoma is in the tornado alley, and the peak tornado season is March to May.

Getting around Oklahoma

To explore Oklahoma you need a car, but how else would you go down Route 66? There is train service to Oklahoma City, and bus service to the major cities, but little to the rest of the state.

Oklahoma City has the Metro Transit rubber-tyre trolleys that loop the downtown area and go between downtown and several hotels. There is also a bus service that will take you to most destinations. Tulsa has some local bus service and a self-guided walking tour of downtown.

If hiking, biking, and horseback riding are your preferred mode of transit, there are urban, mountain, pine wood, and prairie trails. With all the lakes and waterways, boating, rafting, and kayaking are also popular.

What is good to know if travelling to Oklahoma?

• It ended here: the Trail of Tears, the forced march, ended at Tahlequah. The Cherokee Heritage Centre incorporates the Cherokee National Museum and Tsa La Gi Ancient Village. Muskogee is where the Five Civilised Tribes Museum is. The tribes are the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole. For souvenirs such as Indian jewellery, T-shirts, moccasins, rugs, pottery, Indian art, Pendleton blankets, beads and craft supplies, Lyon’s Indian Store in Tulsa has been in operation since 1916. Tulsa is also the home of Gilcrease Museum, which houses the world’s largest, most comprehensive collection of American Western and Native American art, artifacts, manuscripts, documents, and maps.
• Indian City U.S.A. in Anadarko was established in 1954. It was designed as an outdoor museum of reconstructed American Indian Villages to provide an insight into the routines, religious beliefs, and social life of the First Nations peoples.
• The National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum is in Stillwater. It promises that you will “feel the heat, smell the sweat and experience the excitement of ancient and modern wrestling”.
• Fishing and water sports are very popular on Oklahoma’s lakes. The state has about 200 lakes. The largest is Eufaula Lake. Water sports available include boating and canoeing, kite surfing, parasailing, water/jet skiing and scuba diving.
• The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is said to be the largest protected remnant of tallgrass prairie left in the world. Tallgrass prairie originally covered 400,000 square miles in the US, but with urban sprawl and agriculture, less than 4 per cent remains. In 1996, the Government created this reserve of nearly 11,000 acres. More than 2,000 bison roam free on the land and a “patch-burn” model approach to prescribed burning protects the ecosystem.