North Arkansas is expected to receive “significant” icing Sunday that will make roads hazardous and weigh down utility lines as an arctic cold front blasts through the state, National Weather Service meteorologists said Friday.
The northern half of the state is forecast to get freezing rain, sleet and snow, while thunderstorms are expected in southern Arkansas.
“This will be a significant winter event,” said meteorologist Jeff Hood of North Little Rock. “Temperatures will drop from the 50s Sunday morning to the lower 20s by evening, and the northern rows of counties could get a third to a half an inch of ice.”
Also, another inch to 2 inches of snow and sleet are forecast in some areas of northern Arkansas, he said.
The cold front is expected to arrive early Sunday and stall over southern Arkansas.
National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Sellers of Tulsa said a section from Bentonville to Carroll County will receive a third of an inch of sleet and freezing rain, and less than a quarter of an inch of snow Sunday.
As the system exits, temperatures will plummet, he said.
“Whatever falls will stick around for a few days,” Sellers said.
As the storm system moves eastward Sunday, it’s expected to build. Independence, Sharp, Fulton and Izard counties can expect heavy accumulations of sleet and freezing rain, forecasters said.
“We’re checking our equipment, and stockpiling the salt and abrasives,” said Joe Trantham, a state Highway and Transportation Department district construction engineer in Batesville. “We’re ready to go where we’re needed.”
Trantham said his crew - which treats roads in Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Sharp, Stone and White counties - is on standby. The first road crews will salt sections of U.S. 167 at Ramsey Mountain just south of Batesville.
“That’s the first road we always treat,” he said of the hilly and twisting stretch that leads to the Independence County town.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “We’ll get information from our [districts] in the west as it comes through, so we’ll know what to expect. We can pretreat for freezing rain and sleet, but if it starts as rain, the salt will wash off.”
Mel Coleman, the chief executive officer for the North Arkansas Electric Cooperative, said he has called for crews from electric cooperatives in south Arkansas and Louisiana to be ready to help restore electricity in his area. The North Arkansas Electric Cooperative provides service to 36,000 customers in north-central Arkansas.
“This storm is setting up like the one in 2009,” he said, referring to an ice storm that destroyed 20 percent of the electric company’s system and left customers without power for weeks. “We have to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
“We’ve been through this exercise three times already this year with other forecasts for ice, and they all turned out uneventful,” he said. “But I have a fear time’s running out. We’ve been too lucky.”
Coleman urged residents to prepare for doing without electrical service in cold temperatures for several days. “We all need a Plan B,” he said.
Officials at Entergy Arkansas, the state’s largest utility company, on Friday canceled employee vacations and contacted contract workers to tell them to be prepared to respond if needed.
“We told everybody to be ready,” said Entergy spokesman David Lewis.
Half an inch of ice on a span of electrical line can weigh 500 pounds and cause smaller conductor lines to fail, he said. He added that 1 ½ inches of ice are likely to take down any size of utility line.
Also, linemen are concerned about tree limbs breaking and falling onto lines. The National Weather Service is forecasting sustained winds of 15-20 mph Monday with gusts up to 35 mph. Such winds could topple trees that are laden with ice, Lewis said.
The forecast for Sunday forced the Friday cancellation of the Bicycle Coalition of the Ozarks’ ninth annual Highway 71 Classic. Participants bicycle from 35-75 miles from Fayetteville to Brentwood or Mountainburg and back. The event has been rescheduled for March 23.
Temperatures are expected to be below freezing until Tuesday afternoon across the state. Forecasters say temperatures will climb to the 60s by Friday, however.
“It’s March,” Hood said. “But we still can’t shake the winter threat.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/01/2014