A cold front that swept across much of the eastern U.S. on Monday was forecast to send temperatures plummeting in northern Arkansas to about 13 degrees by sunrise today, meteorologists said.
"With low temperatures in the teens and winds over 10 miles per hour, the wind chill will be at zero or below zero," said Jeff Hood, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
In some parts of north Arkansas, the temperature will stay below freezing until Wednesday, he said.
"This is one of those cases where you're going to want to think about protecting pipes and helping people who don't have decent ways of heating their homes," said Hood.
The cold front brought heavy snowfall to some states, contributing to traffic accidents that killed three people in Michigan and one in Kansas, according to The Associated Press.
In Arkansas, snow and sleet amounted to about an inch of accumulation in some northern parts of the state, said Joe Sellers, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa.
But he said that accumulated snow and ice in Arkansas would be gone by this morning.
After high temperatures around 70 degrees on Sunday, many Arkansans could experience thermal whiplash with highs about 30 degrees colder than that today.
The National Weather Service forecast highs today to be 30 degrees in Harrison and Jonesboro, 32 in Fayetteville and 36 in Little Rock.
The high temperatures in south Arkansas will be slightly warmer. Highs are forecast to be 41 today in El Dorado and 42 in Texarkana, according to the National Weather Service.
"The biggest impact from this is definitely going to be the cold temperatures," Sellers said Monday. "It's a sharp contrast from yesterday to today, that's for sure. Stay bundled up and make sure all your pets are indoors overnight."
Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said asphalt will retain some heat from the warm temperatures on Sunday. He said that would help melt the sleet and snow that fell on state highways Monday, but crews were also treating roads with rock salt.
"As the temperature began to drop, the rock salt began to fly at a rate of 200 pounds per lane mile," said Straessle. "When salt gets wet, it starts to release heat. You've got a salt brine in the making in real time, if you will."
Straessle said roads couldn't be treated with brine before the temperature dropped because the rain would have washed it away.
"We anticipate the pavement conditions to dry out this evening, especially as the wind picks up," Straessle said Monday.
But he wanted drivers to be be aware that, when temperatures drop below freezing, ice could be anywhere that water crosses a road, not just on elevated surfaces. Straessle said drivers can monitor state highway conditions at idrivearkansas.com.
Shane Carter, spokesman for Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field, said the weather hadn't affected travel on Monday as far as he knew.
Kelly Johnson, director of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill, said the runway was in good shape and there were no problems at the airport on Monday. She said chemicals had been put on roads and sidewalks to melt ice.
By Wednesday, temperatures should rebound into the 40s for north and central Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service. But at night the low temperatures are forecast to dip below freezing.
No precipitation was in the Arkansas forecast for today through Thursday night.
An arctic air mass that settled over the much of the northern and central U.S. will continue to push south and eastward, spreading frigid air over parts of the country that had been balmy by comparison over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
"Much of the central and eastern U.S. will be enveloped in a region of much below average temperatures over the next two days, along with potential for widespread record-cold morning low temperatures and record-low afternoon high temperatures," the National Weather Service said Monday afternoon.
More than 1,200 flights were canceled at Chicago airports on Monday and one airplane slid off the runway when it tried to land at O'Hare International Airport, according to the AP. No injuries were reported. Chicago got about 6 inches of snow on Monday.
Metro on 11/12/2019