Rain pelts soggy state

Four to 5 inches of rain fell Saturday on parts of Northwest Arkansas as a cold front moved into the state, producing flooding that closed scores of roads. More rain was expected overnight and today, the National Weather Service said.

Meteorologists initially expected storms to form Saturday afternoon over the northern half of Arkansas, but the forecast was revised when the system stalled over eastern Oklahoma.

“The stuff we thought would happen last night [Friday] never materialized,” said meteorologist Sean Clarke with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

“It was either feast or famine in Arkansas as far as weather. It was famine.”

A squall line Saturday evening raised the possibility of severe storms, and isolated tornadoes were not ruled out for much of the northern half of the state, he said.

Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway posted warnings Saturday on the sheriff’s office Facebook page, saying that all bridges in the county were closed because of flash flooding and that several county roads were closed because of high water.

Emergency officials warned residents in parts of the state that didn’t receive a lot of rainfall late Friday that they should monitor weather reports.

“It sprinkled a bit this morning,” Yell County Office of Emergency Management coordinator Jeff Gilkey said Saturday. “But then it stopped.”

“I am more concerned now, though, than earlier because if we still get the same amount of rain forecasted in a shorter time, it’s going to cause big problems,” he said.

Meteorologist Joe Sellers with the National Weather Service in Tulsa said Saturday that 4-5 inches or more of rain had fallen in some isolated areas in Northwest Arkansas.

Most of the area received 2-3 inches, he said.

The storms did pack a punch as they crossed into the state Friday evening.

The weather service confirmed that an EF1 tornado with winds up to 110 mph touched down Friday evening near Cameron, Okla., some 25 miles southwest of Fort Smith.

The twister damaged a barn and uprooted trees, Sellers said.

The weather service issued a tornado warning for Sebastian County late Friday, but no twister touched down in Arkansas, Clarke said. Weather spotters reported tennis-ball-sized hail south of Fort Smith as the storm roared through Friday.

“My dad’s truck got some dings,” said a cashier at the E-Z Mart convenience store on U.S. 271 in Fort Smith. He wouldn’t give his name. “They got golf-ball-sized hail,” he said.

Clarke said more storms were expected overnight Saturday and into today.