Rain, possible flooding expected in state for rest of week

An unusual weather pattern has settled over Arkansas and is expected to produce heavy rainfall nightly over parts of western, northern and Central Arkansas for much of the remainder of the week, weather officials said Monday.

Meteorologist Thomas Jones of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said heat and atmospheric conditions will create the unsettled weather pattern that will likely produce overnight storms repeatedly in the same areas.

Chances of severe weather, including strong winds and hail, are possible in western Arkansas, the weather service said.

“It comes in waves, where storms show up in western and Central Arkansas in the evening and continue until the early morning hours, but early afternoon it warms back up and the storms go away. Then the pattern repeats itself,” Jones said. “The storms usually peter out before they make it to western Arkansas.”

Jones said the pattern is triggering high rainfall totals, with 2-3 inches falling in the same areas almost daily.

“This is a little bit of an unusual pattern that you normally wouldn’t see at the end of August and the beginning of September,” he said.

The big concern is that rain isn’t being dispersed across the state, but is instead falling in the same areas and is causing high moisture levels. Daily flash flood warnings are expected in those areas for much of the remainder

of the week.

“In some counties the soil moisture is in excess of 80%,” Jones said. “For example, the city of Mena has seen 20 inches of rain this month alone. As soon as it starts raining, it will result in a runoff and, in turn, it will result in flash flooding.”

Polk, Scott, Logan, Montgomery and Yell counties will be prone to flooding over the next several days, he said. Several roads in Scott County were underwater Monday morning because of flash flooding .

“Another factor is the terrain in those areas,” Jones said. “The heavy rain will fall down to the low-lying areas, and that will also promote flooding.”

A number of major roadways flooded Monday morning in Hot Springs and Garland County, leading Entergy Arkansas to issue a high-flow notification for areas below Remmel Dam after 2-4 inches of rain fell in about an hour and a half.

The National Weather Service said local law enforcement officials reported several streets flooded, including Central, Grand and Malvern avenues in Hot Springs. Flooding also was reported near Hot Springs Memorial Field, and Airport Road was temporarily closed until the water receded.

Entergy Hydro operations said in an email Monday to The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs that storms dropped significant rain on already saturated areas, which led the company to open spillway gates on Remmel and Carpenter dams.

Preliminary rainfall estimates included 3.66 inches at Blakely Mountain Dam, 2.57 inches at Carpenter Dam and 2.09 inches at Remmel Dam.

The weather is expected to clear up Friday when a cold front moves through and pushes the atmospheric pressure out of the state, which sets up for a nice Labor Day weekend.

“I would encourage everyone to check the river levels before going floating,” Jones said. “The rain might end on Friday, but there still might be some pretty swift rivers and streams that might not be good for floating and might be dangerous.”

The latest round of storms comes only days after the remnants of Hurricane Laura passed through the state, spawning several tornadoes and knocking power out in many areas.

The National Weather Service in North Little Rock confirmed that an EF2 tornado touched down in Randolph County and traveled 14 miles.

“That is impressive strength from a tornado that spawned from a tropical storm,” Jones said. “They are usually shortlived and rarely that strong.”

The National Weather Service in North Little Rock also confirmed an EF0 tornado in Woodruff County that traveled for little more than a mile, while the National Weather Service in Memphis confirmed six tornado tracks in northeast Arkansas that ranged from EF0 to EF1.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in response to the remnants of Hurricane Laura making its way into the state and authorized $250,000 from an emergency fund to help with the state’s preparations.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said damage was reported in Bradley, Calhoun, Clark, Cleveland, Craighead, Drew, Hempstead, Hot Spring, Lafayette, Lee, Nevada, Ouachita, Randolph and Saline counties.

Spokeswoman Melody Daniel said the agency doesn’t believe damage related to the storm will warrant federal assistance, but it’s too soon to know for sure.

“We still have a handful of folks doing damage assessments now,” Daniel said Monday. “It appears everyone will be able to recover primarily on their own. But it took us a couple of weeks for us to get the totals for the Jonesboro tornado [in March] that warranted federal assistance.”