Forecasters expect temperatures to drop by more than 50 degrees across Arkansas during the next 36 hours as yet another round of cold, arctic air blusters into the state and brings along freezing rain, sleet and snow.
Meteorologists are hesitant to predict exactly how much snow will fall because it depends upon ground temperatures when the precipitation falls, but estimates range from 2 to 6 inches in the eastern part of the state.
"We are in a continual cold pattern," said National Weather Service meteorologist Tabitha Clarkeof North Little Rock. "We have the moisture in place, and the cold air moves in."
Temperatures are forecast to rise into the 70s in the southern edge of the state and into the 60s elsewhere today, with rain and thunderstorms. The cold front will come through Wednesday morning, plummeting temperatures to the 30s with wintry precipitation to follow.
Rain will change to freezing rain and sleet across the northern tier early Wednesday, and then head south into the rest of the state, Clarke said. It should change to snow by mid-afternoon, she said.
Temperatures will continue to drop Wednesday night, reaching the mid-teens, forecasters said. With winds from the north at up to 15 mph, the wind chill is expected to fall to single digits or even zero degrees. Wind chill is a calculation that describes the combined effect of wind and low temperatures on exposed skin.
Eastern Arkansas is forecast to receive more snow than the rest of the state, said National Weather Service meteorologist Andy Sniezak of Memphis.
"The precipitation will change over to snow faster because it will reach colder air," he said. "They may see some sleet and freezing rain in the morning, but during the afternoon, it's all snow."
Sniezak said forecasters were leery of predicting accumulation totals because Tuesday's warm weather will heat up the ground.
"It's hard to say how much will stick," he said. "It depends upon the temperature, the amount falling, the time of day."
The forecast has already created an anticipated run on milk and bread at grocery stores.
Hiland Dairy, a Little Rock milk distributor, has received a number of calls from stores asking for more milk deliveries.
"Our phones light up whenever we get a forecast like this," Hiland Dairy General Manager Mike Flagg said.
"Stores are calling and asking for extra product. Kids aren't in school, and they have to eat lunches and dinners at home. Not everyone is stocked up with milk, so they hit the stores at the last minute.
"It's like Christmas shopping," he said. "We're starting to receive the calls now, but it will really pick up [today]."
In Pocahontas, where about 2 inches of snow fell Saturday, Randolph County sheriff's detective Willie Kimbell said he was tiring of the cold.
"We'd like to see sunshine sometime," he said. "We still have ice and some snow on the ground.
"Spring's not too far away. We're ready."
Spring begins at 5:46 p.m. March 20, the Weather Service said -- still more than two weeks away.
Little Rock's average temperature in early March is about 40 degrees, Clarke said. On Wednesday night, it will drop to 15 degrees.
"We had a pretty mild winter overall," she said. "But we didn't gradually go to this colder weather. It just came all of a sudden.
"With every weather system that's come through lately, though, it's looking better that it could be the last one of the winter. It should start to warm, but I wouldn't rule out that there's no more [snow] ahead."
State Desk on 03/03/2015