Winter serving up snow, cold
Arctic weather set to make week ahead a good time to stay home.
Back-to-back bouts of Arctic weather are expected to bury Arkansas in snow and plunge the state into a deep freeze for most of the coming week.
As of 4 p.m. Saturday, the entire state was under a winter-storm warning, according to the National Weather Service.
The forecast Saturday prompted the Legislature to declare a recess in its regular session. Lawmakers met Wednesday and canceled Thursday’s meetings last week because of wintry weather and icy roadways. Lawmakers were to resume meeting Monday.
A joint proclamation released Saturday afternoon by House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey delayed proceedings until next Wednesday or “until such time as the winter storm threat lessens to allow safe travel to the State Capitol.”
“Until such time” could rule out meetings for the week, according to forecasts from the National Weather Service.
Meteorologist Jeff Hood with the North Little Rock office said wintry precipitation is expected to begin early today in west and northwest parts of the state.
“We’re not going to be talking about very heavy snow off the bat, but we could be looking at the light snowfall coming in during the morning hours,” Hood said. “For most of the state we’re going to see snow holding off until Sunday afternoon.”
In the first round of storms, the chance of snow is greatest for tonight and Monday morning, according to Hood.
“It looks like amounts in the 3- to 4-inch range will be fairly common, but through
out these events in the past there are always places that pick up locally higher totals,” he said. “And some locations perhaps across far southern Arkansas and far northern Arkansas could see some slightly lower amounts.”
Hood said Central Arkansas has not had 5 inches or more of snow since January 2016.
The National Weather Service projected that Pulaski County and other central parts of the state are in the bull’s-eye for the heaviest amounts of snow in the first wave of storms.
The first snowstorm should be through the state by about noon Monday, Hood said. The second storm is forecast for the middle of the week.
Temperatures reaching above freezing between the
two waves is “a pretty hard no,” meaning what snow falls in the first round will not melt before the second storm rolls through.
“For most of the state, high temperatures on Monday will be in the single digits to teens,” Hood said. Low temperatures Monday morning and Tuesday morning will be in the single digits and below zero for portions of northern and western Arkansas, so we’re not going to warm up, and it’s going to be dangerously cold.”
The second snowstorm is expected to produce at least a couple of inches when it arrives Wednesday or Thursday.
“Once again it looks like a snowfall event for much of Arkansas and surrounding areas,” Hood said.
With the second storm several days away, Hood said the weather service is concentrating on the first storm.
“We kind of want to take
these one at a time, so we’re working on the forecast for the event on Sunday and Monday,” Hood said.
Arkansas Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Parker said highway crews were ready to start clearing roads as needed.
“The ice storm last week got us in preparation mode, meaning we already had people working 12-hour shifts, day [and] night in all 10 of our districts,” he said. “Our equipment was all checked for that. So, we are kind of in that game-day, game-ready mode.”
Parker said the crews had an opportunity to rest up Saturday in preparation for the week ahead. After four or five days of 12-hour shifts, fatigue can set in, he said, “but we’re OK.”
“I know you hear it all the time, but please in the next couple of days, if at all possible, stay at home,” Parker said. “If we get what’s predicted,
the road’s are going to be in difficult shape.”
Hood said folks should be as prepared as possible before the brunt hits this afternoon. They should have batteries and flashlights. “Hopefully, you have prescriptions on hand, perhaps a few day’s worth of canned foods and some essentials as far as food items and things like that.”
Power failures are a concern in such weather.
Brandi Hinkle, communications specialist at Entergy Arkansas, said that last week’s wintry weather prepared utility crews for what’s to come.
“That includes gathering materials and moving them to where we expect there would be outages due to damage, so that people, power poles, power lines, whatever we need to get power back on as quickly and safely as possible” are in place, Hinkle said.
The difference between preparations made last week
and the ones ahead is the wind.
“Winds can cause damage when you get the extra weight on [tree] limbs and lines. Then we can’t get our bucket trucks up, and it also affects visibility,” Hinkle said.
“With snow we don’t worry about [it’s effects] on our materials, the lines, the power equipment as it collects on limbs that can then fall on our equipment,” Hinkle said. “But this storm also calls for high winds.”
Entergy has called for backup crews and will have more help available to restore power if needed.
Also, “we are moving [workers] around the state as necessary,” she said.
Hinkle suggested that before the storm, people stock up on blankets and firewood. She also asked people to turn off the breakers at their homes if the electricity goes off.
“We also ask that you either
turn off your heat or flip the breaker if you have one of those thermostats that you can’t turn off, because it could easily create a power surge when the power comes back on if everything you’ve got suddenly powers on,” Hinkle said. “And then you could have a power outage again and do damage to your home’s electrical system and even ours.”
By next weekend, temperatures should rise above freezing, Hood said.
“It may be a little bit optimistic at this point,” Hood said, but he expects temperatures by next weekend to rise into the 30s and 40s, while lows will remain below freezing.
“But after a few days of dealing with temperatures in the single digits and teens, 20s and 30s for lows and highs above freezing perhaps in the 40s that would be some welcome relief for many,” he said.