Snow piles up in portions of state
Ozarks see at least 6 inches; roads mostly clear at nightfall
All but two counties in the state were under winter storm warnings or winter weather advisories Saturday evening as some areas saw more snowfall than forecast, but Arkansas roads remained largely clear as night fell and temperatures dropped.
Arkansans in the Ozark Mountains saw the most snow during the day, with 6-8 inches falling near Harrison and Marshall, and more expected overnight, said Joe Goudsward, senior forecaster at the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
In Little Rock, flurries came down slightly earlier than forecast as cold air rolled in more quickly than expected, said Dave Parker, Arkansas Department of Transportation public information officer, shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday.
“Big fat flakes” were falling in the metropolitan area by nightfall, Goudsward said.
The system of winter weather was expected to work its way east overnight, Goudsward said, with the snowfall likely petering out by 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. today. Still, he expected snow to keep coming in bands over certain areas of the state during the night.
“We could see another 5-6 inches in the Ozark Mountains,” Goudsward said, and a couple of inches in the Little Rock area.
At 6 p.m., the National Weather Service reported that it was still above freezing in Little Rock, at 35 degrees, but North Little Rock was already at 32 degrees, with both sides of the river seeing light snow and fog. It was 32 degrees in Harrison at that time, with snow still coming down.
Workers were still able to plow the snow off the roads as of 6 p.m., Parker said, and there had been no major traffic issues in the state at that point. Although traffic had
slowed in the northern counties where snow was heavier, traffic elsewhere in the state was not terribly backed up, he said.
“[The] snow amounts aren’t anything we can’t handle,” Parker said.
But the darkness and continued snowfall would make things a little trickier, he said. Even an accident involving one vehicle could delay traffic and make it harder for the plows and road crews to get to trouble areas.
“It’s still coming down pretty good up there [near Harrison and Marshall],” Parker said.
If the snow picks up and plows are not able to keep the roads clear, workers will start laying down another layer of salt brine, he said.
In the Little Rock area, the department reacted to the earlier snowfall by deploying crews shortly after 2 p.m., instead of the planned 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., Parker said.
“We just had to adjust, had to get our guys in quicker,” Parker said.
The department’s work was made easier by the fact that they prepared as early as Thursday to tackle the winter weather, with equipment loaded and ready, he said.
A second wave of road crews was scheduled to come in around 7 p.m. and work overnight, Parker said.
Black ice on roads will almost certainly be a problem through the night and into the morning, he said.
“It only takes one little patch of ice to cause a big problem,” Parker said.
About 6:30 p.m., the Entergy Arkansas power outage map online showed sporadic outages totaling fewer than 1,000 customers from Harrison to Mountain Home.