National Weather Service: Expect ice, more snow

The sun may be shining today, but that may be somewhat deceiving considering the forecast for the next few days.

The National Weather Service in Memphis has issued a winter storm watch from midnight tonight through 6 p.m., Thursday, for St. Francis County and much of Eastern Arkansas, along with wind chill advisories for the next several days.

Temperatures for this area are not expected to rise above freezing before Saturday, meaning the precipitation that is already on the ground will be around for several more days.

Schools in the area have cancelled in-person classes and shifted to virtual instruction for the remainder of the week. Many local government buildings are also closed, such as Forrest City City Hall and the St. Francis County Courthouse.

The forecast is calling for another round of winter precipitation beginning around midnight tonight with chances increasing Wednesday into Thursday.

This time around, forecasters are calling for ice and up to six inches of snow on top of what has already fallen, which ranges from three to six inches in this area, according to the NWS.

“You’re gonna get some snow tonight, which may be very light, but the big stuff is going to move through Wednesday afternoon into Thursday,” said Samantha Wright, a NWS-Memphis meteorologist. “This will be a combination of snow, sleet and ice.

“We’re not thinking it will be the same amounts as Monday,” Wright continued. “The snow accumulation may actually be a little lower because we’re expecting more ice accumulation this time.

“It will be sunny most of today, which could melt some of

this stuff, but when the next wave moves through, the cloud cover will come back and we’ll have more snow over a larger area Wednesday afternoon,” she said.

Wright said St. Francis County residents can expect to see more ice than snow with the next storm system. “We’re thinking four to six inches of snowfall for your area with about two-tenths of an inch of ice,” she said.

The addition of ice to what is already present could compound the situation and create power outages on grids that are already stressed due to single-digit temperatures. Utility companies are asking consumers to reduce energy usage as much as possible.

Katie West • Times-Herald In the top photo, a Forrest City Public Works employee plows snow on the Grant Street parking lot. A large dumpster will be placed on that parking lot to allow Forrest Citians an opportunity to dispose of trash since garbage routes cannot be run in these conditions. The above photo shows a portion of Highway 334 where motorists have cut a path through the snow. More winter precipitation is forecast overnight, continuing into Thursday.

Brodie Johnson • Times-Herald