Winter weather system to affect area
A winter storm packing two punches is expected to bring enough freezing rain to impact electrical service and travel today and tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service.
The threat of winter weather had officials at public offices and schools on Monday afternoon announcing closures or truncated hours.
The first storm will be in play this morning and is expected to bring a tenth of an inch or so of freezing rain, according to Dylan Cooper, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock.
Another wave will come along this afternoon and evening with another one- or two-tenths of an inch of freezing rain, Cooper said.
“It’s not going to be the most hellacious winter storm we’ve had here in Arkansas, but it will be enough to impact trees, the electrical infrastructure and definitely travel,” Cooper said.
The high today is expected to be 33 with a low tonight of 28.
A winter storm warning is issued if ice accumulation is expected to be above a quarter of an inch. Consequently, the Pine Bluff area is under the threat of severe weather until mid-day on Wednesday, Cooper said.
Pine Bluff Street Department Director Tom Bennett said his crews are ready.
“For the last two weeks we have been monitoring the weather forecast,” Bennett said. “We have a Weather Readiness Team that was implemented a few years ago to combat severe weather. We have been planning for this for about a week.”
Bennett said the city’s salt and sand trucks as well as a grader are on standby.
“We will be focusing on overpasses and bridges because they are the most hazardous due to concrete and precipitation,” he said. “We have 32 Street Department employees and 22 of them make up our Weather Readiness Team. We will rotate every four hours beginning at 3 a.m. on Tuesday to spread salt and sand over the icy areas expected to freeze around midnight.”
Bennett said the city will focus on heavy volume traffic corridors such as Olive Street, Harding Avenue, the Convention Center Drive overpass, the Martha Mitchell Expressway, and designated areas that have slippery conditions.
“We have a route of heavy traffic corridors that we address,” Bennett said. “We are a pretty good team with older members of the Street Department who have been doing this for years.”
Cooper said the cause of the bad weather is a cold front that has settled over an area that extends from Arkansas down to the Gulf Coast.
“The southern U.S., Arkansas and Louisiana are under a dome of cold air near the surface,” he said. “Aloft there is a lot of moisture. North Arkansas will see sleet, but Central Arkansas, which includes Pine Bluff, will have mainly a freezing rain event.”
The amount of freezing rain would not by itself be enough to snap power lines, Cooper said, but it could be enough to collect on and bring down trees and branches.
“That’s when you get issues with power lines,” Cooper said.
Jefferson County officials announced that county offices would close today at noon because of the threat of inclement weather. Pine Bluff city officials said city offices would be open today but that transit service would not operate. And all three school districts — White Hall, Pine Bluff and Watson Chapel — announced that in-person classes would be canceled for today.
Also, Watson Chapel’s varsity basketball games scheduled for Tuesday have been postponed.
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff announced that business operations and academic instruction would be virtual until 5 p.m. today. “Faculty and students should report to their classes utilizing virtual modalities,” the university announced.
Entergy sent out a note on Monday afternoon to customers saying the coming storm had the potential to knock out service.
“Entergy has assembled restoration workers as well as additional resources from other states to respond as safely and quickly as possible,” the text alert stated. “If you should lose power, please be aware that restoration can be hampered by icy road conditions.”