Late December taste of winter

LITTLE ROCK — A winter storm roaring across the nation’s midsection will scrape Northwest Arkansas, possibly resulting in freezing rain tonight, according to the National Weather Service.

But as far as winter weather is concerned, it will be a glancing blow.

There won’t be much if any snow accumulation in Arkansas, said Chuck Hodges, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa, Okla.

“If there’s going to be any winter precipitation, it’s more likely to be freezing rain,” he said.

Hodges said icing on “elevated roadways” could be a problem for drivers tonight and early Thursday.

The bigger problem could be the amount of rainfall, which is predicted to be 4 to 6 inches across Arkansas.

That will lead to runoff and flash-flooding concerns, according to the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

“Thunderstorms will also be possible with this system and a few of them could be strong over the southeast part of the state Thursday afternoon and evening,” according to the weather services’ briefing on Tuesday. “Widespread severe weather is not expected.”

Fayetteville will hit its high of 48 degrees about 9 a.m. today. The temperature will fall during the remainder of the day before bottoming out at about 32 tonight, according to the weather service. Thursday’s high is projected to be 40 degrees.

Little Rock will be much warmer — at least this morning.

After hitting a high of about 62 degrees today in Little Rock, the mercury will dip to about 38 tonight before barely inching up to a high of 40 on Thursday.

Conditions should warm up to 50 degrees in Little Rock on Friday, which is New Year’s Day.

The storm began making its way Tuesday across the Upper Midwest, creating treacherous travel conditions and generating warnings for people to stay off the roads.

The National Weather Service issued winter-storm warnings for parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

By Tuesday morning, snow was so heavy in western Nebraska that Interstates 80 and 76 were closed for several hours in both directions after numerous accidents, and the Nebraska Department of Transportation warned people to avoid unnecessary travel, according to The Associated Press.

Police in Omaha reported several accidents blamed on slick roads. Some parts of Nebraska already had 3 inches of snow by midmorning, and the area near Creston, Iowa, already had 5 inches of snow.

Heavy snowfall of up to a foot, and perhaps more in some spots, was forecast in parts of Iowa, where the state Department of Transportation urged people to delay travel plans.

In the Kansas City area, four hours north of Fayetteville, light snow on Tuesday morning resulted in several accidents. Among them were several rollovers on the Kansas side of the metropolitan area.

(AP/Omaha World-Herald/Chris Machian) Blowing snow limits visibility Tuesday morning for motorists in Omaha, Neb., as a strong winter storm pushed across the Upper Midwest, creating treacherous travel conditions, spurring warnings urging people to stay off the roads and closing coronavirus testing sites. The system could drop freezing rain on Northwest Arkansas tonight, while most of the state will get heavy rain.