A cold front has begun moving across the state, bringing lower temperatures and relative humidity, forecasters say.
The high for Little Rock on Monday afternoon is 86 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
Dan Koch, a meteorologist with the weather service, said, “We are getting a nice break from the sweltering heat and humidity.”
The cold front and precipitation began to move across the state on Sunday and are continuing to move toward southern Arkansas as of Monday morning.
Koch said that it was hard to estimate how much rainfall covered the state on Sunday because the storms were so isolated that a lot of it missed the weather service’s rain gauges.
This is bringing cooler weather, according to Koch. He said the highs for most of the state are predicted to be in the 90s on Thursday, but Arkansas is not forecasted to have triple digit temperatures this week.
The dew point, a measure of how much absolute moisture is in the air, has dropped significantly. Previously the dew point had been in the 70s, but it could drop to the 50s before the week is over.
“We have kind of broken away from this heat dome we’ve been under for the past few weeks,” said Koch, “Certainly it will come back but for the moment we are getting a break.”
The weather service compared the relative humidity measurements from Sunday to Monday for the state on Twitter, where Little Rock dropped from 85% to 58%. Most of the state saw a similar drop, except for southern portions of Arkansas where the cold front had not yet moved through.
Comparing the relative humidity measurements from Sunday to Monday for the state, the weather service said Little Rock dropped from 85% to 58%. Most of the state saw a similar drop, except for southern portions of Arkansas where the cold front had not yet moved through.
Temperatures are expected to rise again on Thursday, but on Friday there is a fairly low chance of scattered thunderstorms that could help keep the temperatures down, forecasters said.
This weather service graphic shows the cold front moving throughout the state. (National Weather Service/Twitter)