View Larger Map
Oklahoma is a state located in the southern Great Plains and Eastern Woodlands regions
of the United States. It is "Native America" and the "Sooner
State", and is part of a region commonly known as the American "Heartland." Oklahoma City is the state's capital and largest city. The Congressional Quarterly
and Census report place Oklahoma in the Southern United States. However, since
Oklahoma is near the geographic center of the U.S., the regional influences
add to Oklahoma's unique character.
Oklahoma
became the 46th state in the Union on November 16th, 1907. The state's name
comes from the Choctaw words okla meaning people and homma meaning red, literally
meaning "red people" and was chosen by Allen Wright, Principal
Chief of the Choctaw Nation during the 1866 treaty negotiations. It
is a state with a colorful history, including its days as a frontier state,
it being a destination of recently freed slaves looking for opportunity and
equality, and being at the heart of the oil boom in the early 20th century.
Most notably, Oklahoma has the nation's third largest American Indian population. In honor of its large American Indian population, and for tourism purposes, Oklahoma is called "Native America." Oklahoma's early history is intertwined with the Trail of Tears, which was the forced removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from the southeastern United States to present-day Oklahoma. As a testament to the state's western and American Indian heritage, Oklahoma (Tulsa) is the home of the world-renowned Gilcrease Museum, which houses the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of American Western art and artifacts, as well as an unparalleled collection of American Indian, Central and South American art, artifacts, documents, and maps..
Oklahoma
is one of the six states on the Frontier Strip. It is bounded on the east
by Arkansas and Missouri, on the north by Kansas and northwest by Colorado
(both at 37°N), on the far west by New Mexico (at 103°W), and on the
south and near-west by Texas. The panhandle's southern boundary is at 36.5°N,
then turning due south along 100°W to the southern fork of the Red River),
completing the round trip back to Arkansas.
Oklahoma's four main mountain ranges include the Ouachitas, Arbuckles, Wichitas, and the Kiamichis. In addition to several smaller ranges, Oklahoma also notably encompasses a portion of the Ozarks.
The state's highest peak, 4,973 feet (1,515 m) Black Mesa, lies in the far northwestern corner of the panhandle near the town of Kenton. The lowest elevation is in the far southeastern of the state, near Idabel, at 324 feet (99 m). Oklahoma also has what is officially considered the highest hill in the world, Cavanal Hill, at 1,999 feet (609 m); this is considering the fact that a "mountain" is anything 2,000 feet or higher. It is located in Poteau, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma has six tripoints. (see list of Oklahoma tri-points)
With 200 man-made lakes, Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other
state and boasts over one million surface-acres of water and 2,000 more miles
(3,200 km) of shoreline than the Atlantic and Gulf coasts combined. Lake Eufaula
is the largest lake in the state, covering 102,000 surface acres (413 km²)
of water.
Major climate variations between the western and eastern parts of the state partly account for the terrain irregularity.
Oklahoma is a state dominated by contrasting cold and warm air masses which collide east of the Rocky Mountains. As can be expected, this results in a wide range of weather throughout the state, ranging from a borderline humid subtropical climate zone near the southeast part of the state to a semi-arid climate in the High Plains of the panhandle. While there is some variation in temperature in the state, with the south portion on the Texas border averaging an annual mean temperature of 62 °F, and the panhandle averaging under 54 °F, the main climatic difference in Oklahoma is precipitation. The southeast corner of the state near the Ouachita Mountains averages over 52 inches of precipitation a year. Moving west from that point, the precipitation decreases rapidly- for each 10 miles traveled west, the precipitation is approximately 1 inch less. The driest part of the state is the extreme western panhandle with less than 16 inches annually.
The most notable feature of Oklahoma's climate is its thunderstorms. While Oklahoma averages from 40-60 days of thunderstorms throughout the entire state, which is less frequent than thunderstorm activity in parts of the Southeast United States and the central Colorado Rockies, Oklahoma thunderstorms, which occur in what locals call a "fifth season" from April through July tend to be among the most severe in the world. During this "fifth season" colliding cold and warm air masses turn the entire state, especially the central part, into the heart of Tornado Alley. Central Oklahoma is the most tornado-prone area in the world, not only in terms of number of tornadoes (which exceeds 10 per 10,000 square miles), but also in terms of intensity. Some of the most severe tornadoes in history have occurred in Oklahoma, and it is no accident that the National Severe Weather Forecast Center is located in Norman. While central Oklahoma is the epicenter of Tornado Alley, other parts of the state are not immune. The highest wind speed ever recorded on earth was measured during the May 3, 1999 tornado outbreak. Winds reached 318 mph near Oklahoma City during this outbreak.
Snowfall is common in Oklahoma every winter, although it is not extreme, ranging from an average of less than 4 inches in the southern part of the state to just over 20 inches on the Colorado border in the panhandle.
Metropolitan areas by population
|
Original versions of our photos can be purchased & web versions can be shared subject to conditions.