As state warms up, storm chances rise

Some parts of the state could see rain, with a chance of some severe storms, as temperatures warm up throughout the week across Arkansas, the National Weather Service said Monday.

Erik Green, a meteorologist with the weather service in North Little Rock, said that the Little Rock area could see temperatures in the 70s as early as Wednesday.

“Monday is kind of the turning point, where we have the last of the real cold mornings, besides maybe some cooler temperatures in early Tuesday for northern Arkansas,” he said.

Some places in southern Arkansas could see temperatures in the low 80s, while the rest of the state will likely see highs in the 60s and 70s, the forecaster said.

“It is a textbook case of weather whiplash, also known as March in Arkansas,” Green said.

“Obviously temperatures in the upper 20s and lower 30s are not normal for this point in the season, so it will warm up to some more normal temperatures, but that also brings some more instability and a few chances of rain,” he said.

Showers and storms are possible on Tuesday and again on Thursday and Friday, a tweet from the weather service said Monday morning.

Forecasters were still collecting data about how severe any storms this week could be, the tweet said.

Green said that more rainfall would increase the chances of localized flooding.

“For March, pretty much everybody is above normal for rainfall and we have more coming,” he said.

“The soil is still saturated and some streams are still full, local heavy rainfall could make it worse.”

According to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor on March 15, 2022, just under 60% of the state showed no drought conditions while parts of southern Arkansas were in some level of drought.

As of Monday afternoon, the drought monitor showed that 100% of the state is classified as having no drought conditions.

On Tuesday some parts of central Arkansas and the metro area could see around a tenth of an inch of rain, Green said.

“We’re not expecting to see a whole lot of rain early in the week but there is some chance we might see some on Tuesday and then Wednesday we have a day to briefly dry out,” the forecaster said.

Through Thursday and Friday some parts of the state could see an inch to an inch and a half of rainfall, though northern Arkansas has a chance to see more, he said.

“We have a higher confidence of some more storms and maybe up to two or even near three inches of rain in northern parts of the state,” Green said.

Matt Ramsey, a spokesman for Entergy, said Monday afternoon that fast weather changes mean customers are changing their thermostat temperatures more.

“A few degrees can save customers some money,” Ramsey said.

“Turning it to 68 degrees on cooler months and 72 degrees on warmer months can help stop the unit from turning on so frequently.”

He said that during warmer months every degree lower than 78 can raise an electricity bill by 3%.