It was late January 1902, when Little Rock was hit by a particularly destructive winter storm.
Six to 8 inches of mainly sleet fell Jan. 27-30, causing traffic delays, bringing down telegraph and phone lines, crushing roofs and causing more than $250,000 in damage (about $7,752,000 today) in the Little Rock area alone.
On Jan. 15, 1863, a few days after the Union victory at the Battle of Arkansas Post, 13 inches of snow fell at Clarendon.
Reporting a snowstorm on March 6, 1875, Granville Whittington of Mount Ida wrote: "The ground was entirely clean of frost and the snow melted continually but it was 18 inches at the end of the storm. I have no doubt but with the earth frozen there would have been 24 inches at least. I have been here forty years and some older settlers can not recall any greater depth. One man caught in it and perished."
We know about these frigid days of winters past because of the Arkansas Winter Storm Database, a handy-dandy resource created by Brian D. Smith, senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
See for yourself at: arkansasonline.com/117papertrails/.
By scouring old newspapers and other sources, Smith has compiled details on significant winter storms that have hit Arkansas since 1819, the year written weather history in the state began.
This work comes naturally to Smith, who majored in atmospheric sciences and minored in history at the University of Louisiana Monroe and who also does the weather service's "This Day in Arkansas Weather History" Facebook posts.
"It's fascinating, especially combing through the old newspaper reports and accounts," says Smith, who has been with the weather service for 20 years. "It's a labor of love."
The database, which went online late last year, is divided into four sections -- 1819-1899, 1900-1949, 1950-1989, 1990-present -- and each entry includes a map.
A storm in February 1886, is one of several that are notable.
"Northern Arkansas had the heaviest snow amounts," Smith says. "There were anywhere from 10-30 inches of snow. Trains were stuck, buildings had collapsed."
There is more database work to come. Smith plans to add information on ice storms, like the one in December 2000 that left nearly 600,000 without power. He'd also like to work on similar projects for tornadoes and floods.
Digging into Arkansas weather history has shown Smith that there's not much new under the sun.
"Anyone who has lived here for any amount of time knows how variable the weather can be," he says. "A pet peeve of mine is to hear: 'That's never happened before.' Well, I can almost guarantee you I can go back and find that it has happened before."
email: sclancy@adgnewsroom.com