Forecasters say storm systems exiting state for dry Labor Day weekend.

Weather service predicting mostly clear weekend after unusual downpours

Rain clouds are moving out of western Arkansas after a week of heavy rainfall, but the recovery will continue for some time.

Meteorologist Travis Shelton of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said the state will get a break over the Labor Day weekend as storm systems that dumped heavy rain on much of the state make their way out of Arkansas.

“It’s looking nice this weekend. There isn’t any rain in the forecast,” Shelton said. “Clouds will start to clear out, and by Saturday morning most of the state will be clear.”

That’s good news for northern and western Arkansas, which have received extensive rainfall going back to last week. On Wednesday, the weather service said 10 to 15 inches of rain had fallen since Aug. 27 in portions of Howard, Polk, Montgomery, Scott, Sevier, Logan and Sebastian counties.

The weather service said Thursday that 7-8 inches of rain were recorded from Tuesday to Thursday morning near the Polk County town of Mena. Waldron, in Scott County, had received as much as 8.64 inches over the same period, while Yell County reported 6.61 inches and Logan County reported as much as 6.22 inches.

Shelton said those amounts are very unusual for this time of the year in western Arkansas.

“There was quite a bit of rain in August,” Shelton said. “In some areas of western Arkansas, they were 8 feet higher than normally expected for the month. For example, in Texarkana they got 13.11 feet in August when a normal month is 2.91 feet.”

Scott and Polk counties received the most rainfall, which led to flash flooding.

Sheri Thompson, chief deputy for the county judge’s office in Scott County, said Thursday there is still a lot of water across the roads and bridges, but it’s starting to recede.

“Still some people can’t get out of their homes because some of the bridges are gone and the creeks are really high,” she said. “They are working as fast as they can to free people up.”

Thompson said Waldron flooded Monday and water got into businesses and homes, but no municipal buildings were damaged.

“It’s going to take a long time to get back to normal,”

Thompson said. “It could take up to six months, because we got to get all the roads back to where they were. We are just trying to get people out of their homes right now.”

Several roads and bridges were underwater Monday in Polk County and several buildings were flooded, including the county courthouse.

Kris Lyle, coordinator for the Polk County Office of Emergency Management, said he was hopeful for a relatively quick recovery.

“Water got into a couple of shops and fire stations, but the roads are fixable,” he said. “The cleaning crew just left an hour ago from the courthouse, and we are just trying to put things together.”

Lyle said he believes it could take three weeks to get the roads fixed if no additional rain moves into the area. He said officials don’t believe the county will need to declare an emergency for additional funding.

There is a chance of rain returning to western Arkansas on Tuesday, Shelton said, but by then the soil shouldn’t be as waterlogged.

“Some of the ground will get unsaturated by then, but it will depend on how much rain comes in,” Shelton said. “Next Tuesday, western parts of the state might get a 10th or a quarter of an inch, which is not too bad. Wednesday or Thursday could be up to an inch.”

The weather service on Thursday extended until Saturday evening its flood warning for the Petit Jean River at Dardanelle in Yell County.

The river remained at moderate flood stage at 24.5 feet Thursday afternoon, according to the weather service. It’s expected to fall below flood stage early this afternoon and continue falling to 16.1 feet by Tuesday.

Flood warnings also remain in effect for the Fourche Lafave River near Houston, affecting Perry County; the White River at Augusta, affecting White and Woodruff counties; the Cache River near Patterson, affecting Woodruff and Jackson counties; and the Black River at Black Rock, affecting Jackson, Independence and Lawrence counties.

The National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday that three tornadoes touched down Tuesday as a storm system pushed its way across central and north-central Arkansas. Meteorologist Willie Gilmore said Thursday evening the weather service had not confirmed any additional tornadoes.