Rison, in Cleveland County, and the Ouachita County town of Chidester each received 8 inches of snowfall during Wednesday's storm -- the most anywhere in the state, the National Weather Service said Thursday.
The storm, the last of several systems that cut through the state over the last two weeks, entered the southwest corner of Arkansas early Wednesday and pushed across the southern half of the state by nightfall. At times, the wet snow fell at a rate of up to 2 inches per hour.
Tulip and Star City each saw 7 inches of snow, and Pine Bluff, Sparkman and Fordyce each measured 6 inches of snowfall Wednesday.
"It's off the roads, but the snow is still pretty thick," said Rebecca Harvey, an assistant manager at the E-Z Mart in Chidester. "The yards are still as beautiful as can be.
"I'm still a nervous wreck driving on the icy side roads, but we got a heck of a snow," she said.
Roads were clear, but wet in Sparkman, city recorder and treasurer Rita Fite said.
"It was pretty," Fite said. "We don't usually get the snow. We get the ice and freezing rain more. We very seldom see snow like this."
Snowfall accumulations varied widely within just a few dozen miles. Lonoke reported 1.2 inches of snow, and Blakemore, just 14 miles south in Lonoke County, had 3.5 inches.
Downtown Little Rock measured 1 inch of snow, and no snow accumulated across the Arkansas River in North Little Rock.
Despite the small amount of snowfall in Little Rock, it's increased the capital city's snow accumulation for the decade so far to 47.7 inches, the National Weather Service in North Little Rock reported.
That makes this decade to-date, 2010-2015 as already the seventh-snowiest decade on record, already surpassing 10-year spans starting in 2000, 1990, 1950, 1940, 1930, 1920 and 1900.
The sixth-snowiest decade occurred from 1980-1989 and measured 55.2 inches. The snowiest decade was from 1960-1969, when 90.5 inches was measured.
This decade's snowfall is the result of a repetitive weather pattern that merges cold, arctic air from the north with warm, Gulf of Mexico moisture, said weather service meteorologist Julie Lesko of North Little Rock.
"Everything comes together at the right time," she said. "The cold air from the subtropical jet meets the moisture already in place, and we have snow."
State Desk on 02/27/2015