As much as 8 inches of snow blanketed central Arkansas and a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow fell on much of the rest of the state overnight Thursday, turning roads slippery and forcing the closure of state offices Friday.
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.arkansas…">In sights, East steels for storms http://www.arkansas…">Arkansans in D.C. brace for 'Snowzilla'
Police said Lacey Dawn Dobbs, 24, of Hoxie died Thursday evening when her car slid off icy U.S. 63 about 2 miles south of Hoxie. Dobbs' car overturned in a ditch and she was thrown out, said Buddy Williams, Lawrence County Office of Emergency Management coordinator.
Lawrence County received 3 to 5 inches of snow, Williams said.
Cabot, Jacksonville, Little Rock, North Little Rock and Sherwood all measured 7 to 8 inches, the National Weather Service in North Little Rock reported.
Gravel Ridge had 7.2 inches of snow; Ward reported 6.5 inches; Bald Knob reported 6 inches; and Beebe had 5 inches.
"There's a lot of white," Ashley Estes, an employee at the First Arkansas Bank and Trust in Austin, said about 11 a.m. of the 7 inches of snow that covered the Lonoke County town. "It was gorgeous this morning. The trees were pretty and white. The sun is out now, though, and the roads are getting slushy."
About 25,000 residences and businesses were without power at the storm's peak, utility officials said.
High winds hindered Entergy Arkansas linemen Friday as they worked to restore electrical service, spokesman Julie Munsell. Mississippi, Craighead and Pulaski counties reported the most power disruption, she said.
Munsell said 16,215 were without service during the height of the winter storm. Crews expected to have power back on by Friday evening, she said.
About 8,000 of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Corp.'s customers lost power, spokesman Rob Roedel said. The hardest-hit areas included Pulaski, White, Mississippi, Woodruff and Craighead counties.
Craighead Electric Cooperative reported about 20 utility poles were felled by icing and high winds, Roedel said.
Road crews worked Thursday evening to prepare for the storm by spreading salt pellets on major roadways.
"The rain melted the rock salt and made salt brine," Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department spokesman Danny Straessle said. "We created a buffer in case there was a significant amount of ice. It was a successful thing we did."
He said traffic was rolling on Interstates 40 and 55 during the inclement weather.
Most knew the storm was approaching and planned accordingly, he said. Schools also announced closures early, keeping motorists off roadways as well.
Crews planned to patrol the state's interstates and major highways Friday night and this morning for "hot spots," or ice-slicked areas, Straessle said.
"Four to 6 inches of snow is a good accumulation," he said. "But it's preferable to sleet and freezing rain."
He said rising temperatures and sunny conditions helped clear roads Friday, but he warned that the melting snow would refreeze overnight and could cause hazardous driving conditions this morning.
Little Rock road crews worked 12-hour shifts to clear snow and ice from the city's roadways. Many of the capital city's roads were cleared or slushy by noon.
About 90 employees first worked on major roads, overpasses and streets near hospitals, police and fire stations. Shackleford Road was particularly troublesome, with many vehicles spinning tires to get up the steep hill. A separate city crew cut up trees that had fallen, city spokesman Jennifer Godwin said.
Two members of one street crew helped Karen Young, a physician at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, move snow so she could drive to work. At 9:30 a.m., she was the only pediatrician there to cover four clinics.
"They plowed next to my house, then got out and pushed me onto the road," Young said.
She said she sent a thank-you note to the city for the workers' help.
In North Little Rock, a car stuck in snow at M Avenue and Ridge Road caught fire at 7:30 a.m. Fire Chief Jim Murphy said the car's driver repeatedly "revved" the engine to try to free the vehicle from the snow, causing it to overheat.
Rock Region Metro, the area's public transportation system, operated on its snow schedule Friday with limited routes.
Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock canceled 20 early flights, airport spokesman Shane Carter said. Crews worked overnight to clear the main runway and taxiways using broom trucks and plows, he said.
Several airlines resumed flights at 9 a.m. Friday. Clinton National is Arkansas' largest commercial airport and serves about 2 million passengers yearly. Six airlines operate out of the facility with about 70 daily arrivals and departures.
Oaklawn Racing and Gaming in Hot Springs canceled its horse races Friday but remained open for gambling and simulcast racing. Racing will resume at its normal hours today, a spokesman said.
The Arkansas National Guard deployed six truck teams and three command "support cells," totaling 27 Humvees and 54 guardsmen, Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Keith Moore said. Guardsmen continued to assist Arkansas State Police Troop A in Little Rock and Troop B in Newport on Friday afternoon, Moore said.
Troops logged more than 1,000 miles during the storm and located 18 abandoned vehicles, transported three stranded motorists to gas stations, transported three state troopers and worked several accidents involving tractor-trailers, Moore said.
The winter storm was difficult to predict, National Weather Service meteorologists said. Originally, forecasters said eastern Arkansas could receive 6 to 8 inches of snow as Gulf moisture merged with a cold front headed from the Plains.
However, temperatures aloft were a few degrees higher than expected over eastern Arkansas, causing falling snow to melt and become rain which froze to surfaces on contact.
"It didn't stay cold enough for snow to stay falling," said National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Brown of North Little Rock. "The moisture was too far south before the cold air came into play."
That's why central Arkansas, rather than the eastern edge of the state, got the most snow, he said.
"It was a timing issue," Brown said.
In Memphis, where forecasters first thought several inches of snow could fall, only seven-tenths of an inch was reported, said National Weather Service meteorologist Zach Maye of Memphis.
"It just didn't pan out," he said. "There wasn't as much snow as anticipated. A lot of folks were upset."
The storm system pushed eastward, dropping as much as 8 inches of snow on Nashville, Tenn., and is expected to dump more than 2 feet of snow on Washington, D.C., and other East Coast towns.
A Section on 01/23/2016