Snow, ice hit state’s north; more to come

Two more fronts due to roll through Arkansas this week

NWA Media/ANDY SHUPE - Cpl. Tyler Hughes with the Fayetteville Police Department redirects motorists as he closes Mission Boulevard while workers clear stranded cars as snow falls Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014, in Fayetteville.
NWA Media/ANDY SHUPE - Cpl. Tyler Hughes with the Fayetteville Police Department redirects motorists as he closes Mission Boulevard while workers clear stranded cars as snow falls Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014, in Fayetteville.

The northern half of the state bore the brunt of wintry weather in Arkansas on Sunday, and forecasters say it’s the first of three systems expected to hit this week.

A cold front from the west moved into the state Saturday night, producing freezing rain, sleet and snow in many Arkansas counties. Northern counties mostly saw snowfall, and areas to the south including Russellville, Clinton and Searcy down to central Arkansas saw a mixed bag of winter precipitation. Southern Arkansas just saw cold rain.

Forecasters say it’s just the beginning.

“Overall this week, there’s going to be significant disruptions to transportation and commerce in Arkansas,” meteorologist John Robinson of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said.

What started off as freezing rain and sleet for northern Arkansas turned to snow, meteorologists said. By early Sunday afternoon, meteorologist Charles Dalton of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said, many areas in Northwest Arkansas saw between 2 and 5 inches of snow. Yellville had about 5 inches, and an area a mile outside of Mountain Home saw about 4 inches.

“There’s a snow band that stretches between Fayetteville and Harrison down south of Fort Smith,” he said. “That’ll continue through the rest of the evening hours for the northern half of the state.”

Some areas in that region, Robinson said, could see up to 8 to 10 inches of snow by the end of the night.

By midafternoon Sunday, the weather service in Memphis received reports of freezing rain and sleet in northeast Arkansas, meteorologist John Moore said, adding that residents in the area saw “light accumulations of snowfall and ice.”

Moore said 1 to 3 inches of snow and two-tenths of an inch of ice could accumulate on roads in northeast Arkansas. Central eastern counties would see smaller accumulations, he said.

Early Sunday, weather and law enforcement officials in northern parts of the state didn’t report any major damage or power failures. But many advised caution when driving, saying roads were already slick and conditions would likely worsen.

Washington County sheriff’s office officials said they responded to about 23 accidents and 16 motorist assists in a 4-hour span Sunday.

Dispatchers for the Benton County sheriff ’s office said Sunday afternoon that authorities haven’t closed any roads, but have had to divert traffic momentarily because of accidents. None of the accidents were severe, they said.

In Bentonville, a tour bus slid off Arkansas 112 near Southwest Gator Boulevard about 1:11 p.m., but none of the 47 passengers were injured, said Benton County Emergency Management Coordinator Robert McGowen.

The passengers - Florida State University students who were at the weekend’s Razorback Invitational track meet at the University of Arkansas - were taken to a nearby elementary school and later a hotel, McGowen said. The students are expected to catch a flight today at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, he said.

Road conditions aren’t expected to improve in those areas by this morning, as leftover precipitation will likely freeze over and temperatures dip into the teens, officials said.

Crews statewide pretreated the roads Saturday into Sunday, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department spokesman Danny Straessle said.

“As of the end of [last] week, all crews and all districts statewide were pretty much ready to go,” he said. “The plows have been put on, the spreaders have been reattached, the stockpiles of materials have been built back up.”

In central Arkansas, crews used salt on bridges and overpasses. As the rain continues to fall, it will dissolve the salt, which will then produce heat, Straessle said, adding that that should help the pavements retain heat.

“We hope this amount of pretreating is going to help us remove it a lot easier,” he said. “We’re trying to put down a barrier right now.”

The region, he said, will also debut a new piece of equipment called a belly plow - a larger dump truck with a longer base that allows another plow to be placed underneath the truck’s belly, he said.

The new trucks include the front plow as well as the drop spreader on the back.

On Sunday, the department was using the new truck on Interstates 430 and 40 near the Crystal Hill Road area. Straessle said Northwest Arkansas has three of the belly plows, which they use tohelp remove snow.

According to Straessle, the Interstate 540 corridor in Northwest Arkansas was backed up several times Sunday, though most roads in that part of the state were covered only in snow Sunday morning and afternoon. By midafternoon, he said, the department reported a mixture of slush and ice along the I-40 corridor.

Officials said central Arkansas shouldn’t see much in ice accumulations, but roads could have a light glaze to about a tenth of an inch. Forecasters recorded a little more than an inch of rain in the region Sunday.

Any black ice or ice accumulations are expected to dissipate this afternoon as temperatures rise to the mid- to upper 30s, Dalton said.

The winter weather left some Northwest Arkansas schools closed today. Pea Ridge, Southside, Prairie Grove, Bentonville and Rogers schools were among those closed. Arkansas State University-Mountain Home will also be closed today, and the University of Arkansas campus will delay opening until 12:30 p.m., with first classes beginning at 12:55 p.m.

The precipitation was expected to end by midnight Sunday, but that’s just the first round. Another cold front will begin to sweep across the state by dawn Tuesday, carrying more wintry weather mix behind it, meteorologists said.

Dalton said that system will likely bring more snow to the northern half of the state and freezing rain to central Arkansas.

“It’ll be cooler on Monday and Monday night than we were [Sunday] by probably 5 to 8 degrees,” he said. “We will be firmly below freezing come Tuesday morning. I would fully suspect travel issues across much of central and northern Arkansas.”

Meteorologists said another system will hit the state sometime between Thursday night and Saturday morning, but they haven’t been able to nail down what area will see what type of precipitation just yet.

Straessle said the department will continue to monitor the forecast changes and will alter its plan as needed.

Entergy Arkansas spokesman Julie Munsell said the company had some 700 business and residential customers without power late Sunday afternoon, mostly from failures caused by vehicle crashes. First Electric Cooperative had some 750 customers without power late Sunday evening, according to its website.

“The big concern is not necessarily the amount of snow we might get but the amount of wet snow we might get,” Munsell said.

“It’s the wet snow that can really cause some serious problems when it compiles on the ice.”

Entergy had just over 400 linemen on standby ready for a significant event Sunday, she said, and company officials had a contingency plan in place for any inclement weather later this week.

“We’re more closely tuned to this activity than the Broncos and Seahawks tonight,” she said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/03/2014

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