Arkansans will have to bundle up when venturing out to ring in the New Year this weekend and returning to work next week, as a lengthy stretch of bitterly cold weather will chill the state and much of the nation, weather forecasters said Friday.
Temperatures throughout the state are expected to dip into the teens and even single digits in many areas, with wind chills causing air temperatures to feel like zero degrees or below, according to National Weather Service forecasts.
The cold extends far beyond Arkansas. The National Weather Service predicts that a blast of arctic air will bring very cold temperatures to much of the eastern two-thirds of the United States through the weekend and into 2018.
Lows for central Arkansas are forecast to drop into the low teens on New Year's Day morning and hit single digits Tuesday morning. Normal lows are in the 20s and 30s for this time of year, according to National Weather Service information.
[LIVE TRAFFIC MAP: Check conditions around the state]
There will be no real warm-up for the next week, forecasters said. Much of the state is set to remain below freezing for two to five days starting New Year's Eve on Sunday, according to forecasts. Lows of 20 degrees or below are expected to last into Friday.
"That really needs to be the emphasis, the prolonged period of cold weather," said meteorologist Jeff Hood of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock. "Usually when you see this kind of cold in Arkansas is when we've had an ice storm or several inches of snow that stays on the ground a few days.
"That's what is kind of unusual about this," he said. "This is likely going to be dry, brutally cold air."
While some freezing mixture of precipitation is possible today and Sunday across parts of Arkansas, the chances are mostly for light, brief rounds of freezing rain or light snow with very little accumulation, Hood said.
He cautioned, though, "If anything falls, it would stick and likely could cause some problems."
A strong push of cold air will move through Northwest Arkansas today and into Sunday, accompanied by some freezing drizzle or light snow, said meteorologist Karen Hatfield at the National Weather Service in Tulsa. That will drop Monday's early morning temperatures "pretty close to being right at zero," she said.
Wind chills will be as low as minus-5 to minus-10 degrees.
"With such cold temperatures, even a little bit of freezing drizzle or snow could lead to hazardous travel conditions," Hatfield said.
No frozen precipitation is forecast for the northeast part of the state, but temperatures will begin dropping this afternoon to overnight lows of 12-15 degrees and wind chills at minus-10 to minus-15, said Marlene Mickelson, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Memphis.
Southern Arkansas could see some freezing rain overnight today and into Sunday, especially near and north of the Arkansas-Louisiana line, said Lisa May, a hydro-meteorologist technician for the National Weather Service station in Shreveport.
"We're not expecting an accumulation, but it could affect bridges and overpasses," May said, because of lows into the teens. "It's been several years since we've seen these kind of low temperatures."
In case of any freezing precipitation, the Arkansas Department of Transportation has pre-treated state roadways in the southwest and central areas of the state, said Danny Straessle, spokesman for the department. Salt barns in all 75 counties are "pretty much filled" and equipment and other materials are in place, he said.
"In other areas of the state, we are continuing to watch the forecast as it evolves and, as it does, we will take appropriate action depending on what the precipitation is that falls," Straessle said. "It's safe to say we're ready, and we're just waiting for a time and a day basically."
Piercing cold will have temperatures falling 15-50 degrees below normal in much of the nation, forecasters have said. The persistent cold is related to a stalled weather pattern, in which the jet stream is bulging north over the parts of the Pacific and Alaska, transporting record warmth to that region. It is then cascading south near the Rocky Mountains, allowing bitter cold to spill into eastern North America.
For Sunday night's New Year's Eve celebrations, New York City will ring in 2018 with temperatures near 10 degrees and wind chills of zero to minus-5, which would rank among the coldest ball drops in Times Square in recorded history. The last time it was so cold was in 1962.
The new year will likely begin in Minneapolis with temperatures around minus-10 and a wind chill factor close to minus-30.
Elsewhere, many New Year's Eve plans Sunday night are being scuttled.
St. Louis County officials announced that carriage rides at the St. Louis area's Winter Wonderland light display won't take place when temperatures drop to 15 degrees or below out of concern for safety of the horses and patrons. The decision was made after an animal welfare group sued to stop the rides. The display runs annually through December.
Polar bear plunges into the Atlantic Ocean planned for New Jersey shore towns have been canceled, and organizers pulled the plug on an annual light bulb display in Sunbury, Pa. Fireworks shows have been called off in Omaha, Neb., and at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
In central Michigan, icy roadways caused more than 30 crashes on highways near Flint on Friday morning, while a chain-reaction crash involving about 40 vehicles in the southwestern part of the state left three people hurt. In South Dakota, an 83-year-old woman died of exposure to the cold after she wrecked her vehicle and got out to look for help.
Coastal South Carolina saw a rare bout of freezing rain and drizzle Friday that forced bridges from Charleston to Myrtle Beach to shut down for de-icing.
Straessle said: "This is the time of year when we like to remind motorists that anytime the temperature is below freezing that any moisture on the state highway system will be frozen. If it looks like a roadway is wet, treat it as ice and reduce speed and proceed with caution."
In this period of extreme cold, the North Little Rock Police Department cautioned motorists to refrain from leaving vehicles idling unattended. In the Cincinnati area, police said a half-dozen cars have been stolen in recent days after being left unattended by owners warming up their vehicles.
"A running car is a green light for thieves," a social media post by the North Little Rock Police Department said. "Just like the frost on your windows, it will eventually disappear."
Little Rock's four warming centers closed at 6 p.m. Friday and won't reopen until Tuesday. Since the city opened warming centers Wednesday, five people had sought relief there, according to a city news release Friday.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola encouraged homeless residents to seek shelter from social service providers and others ready to help those in need, the news release said. Also, police officers have been supplied with hand and foot warmers to distribute to homeless people who may decline such services.
Also, animal advocates are urging people to remember their pets during the bitter cold weather. In Toledo, Ohio, a dog was found "frozen solid" on a porch, according to The Blade newspaper in Toledo. The humane society there is investigating and hadn't determined how long the dog, an American bully, was outside.
Cold weather tips from the North Little Rock Animal Control say cats and dogs should be kept inside during cold weather because, like people, pets are susceptible to frostbite and hypothermia. No pet should be left outside for long periods of time in below-freezing weather, the release said.
The city of Little Rock is offering to house and provide medical care for the pets of the city's homeless people at Little Rock Animal Village until the weather warms up, officials said Thursday.
Information for this article was contributed by Jason Samenow of The Washington Post; and by John Seewer and David Sharp of The Associated Press.
Metro on 12/30/2017