Widespread rain will shift out of Arkansas on Thursday morning and scattered storms are possible in the afternoon, but skies should clear for Halloween trick-or-treaters by the evening, the National Weather Service said.
John Lewis, a senior forecaster with the weather service in North Little Rock, said rain will continue through the morning to fall across much of the state with the heaviest precipitation coming in the southeast region.
That area, the only one that remains under a flash flood watch, has already received up to 2 inches of rain and could see that amount double, Lewis said.
But the system should be out of the state about noon, the same time a new front arrives bringing the possibility of scattered thunderstorms, gusty winds and "at least the possibility of severe weather," Lewis said.
But as night falls and children take to the streets for trick-or-treating, the storm chances diminish.
"As it gets dark, I think we lose the instability so it's harder for storms to develop," Lewis said. "... [The rain] should be pretty much over by then. Maybe a little breezy still."
The flash flood watch continues through noon for Arkansas, Bradley, Calhoun, Cleveland, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Jefferson, Lincoln, Monroe and Ouachita counties.
Flash flood watches that blanketed much of the rest of the state were canceled earlier Thursday.
Outside the watch area, the rest of Arkansas will largely get only a tenth-inch to a half-inch of rainfall by the time the first system moves out. Lewis noted severe thunderstorms in central Texas produced heavy rain there overnight, "robbing some of the moisture" that was expected to fall in Arkansas.