Today is forecast to be Much Cooler than yesterday.
Nowcast as of 1:57 PM CST on November 16, 2009
Now
Through 4 PM...scattered showers will continue over eastern Arkansas. Movement will be northeast at 30 mph. Rainfall amounts will average less than one tenth inch.
Forecast for Independence
Updated: 12:07 PM CST on November 16, 2009
This Afternoon
Cloudy. A chance of rain. Temperatures falling into the upper 40s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph...with gusts to around 25 mph. The chance of precipitation 40 percent. Average rainfall less than 1/10 inch.
Cloudy. A chance of rain in the evening...then a slight chance of rain after midnight. Lows in the mid 30s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. The chance of precipitation 30 percent.
Wednesday
Partly sunny. A slight chance of rain in the morning. Highs in the lower 50s. South winds 5 mph. The chance of precipitation 20 percent in the morning.
... Flood Warning extended until Friday morning... the Flood Warning continues for the Black River at Black Rock. * Until Friday morning... or until the warning is cancelled. * At 9:00 am Monday the stage was 16.7 feet. * Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast. * Flood stage is 14.0 feet. * Forecast... the river will continue to fall to 15.9 feet by Tuesday monring and fall below flood stage by Thursday morning.
Fld observed forecast 6am location stg stg day time Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Black River Black Rock 14 16.7 Mon 09 am 15.9 15.0 13.9 13.0 12.5
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Public Information Statement
Statement as of 2:00 PM CST on November 16, 2009
... The outlook for the upcoming winter...
November 16th through 20th is winter weather awareness week in Arkansas... and it has been so proclaimed by governor mike Bebee. Sponsors of the awareness week are the National Weather Service... the Arkansas department of emergency management... entergy Arkansas... the electric cooperatives of Arkansas... the Arkansas National guard... the Arkansas State Police... and the American Red Cross.
People are asked to take some time and prepare for the upcoming winter season.
Todays topic is the outlook for the upcoming winter.
Last winter in Arkansas... temperatures averaged close to normal. Precipitation averaged below normal across most of the state.
The historic ice storm in northern Arkansas was the biggest weather story of the winter. The ice storm began during the day on January 26th and ended on the morning of the 28th. Damage amounted to nearly one billion dollars. More than 450 thousand electric customers lost power. At one electric cooperative in northeast Arkansas... only 12 out of the cooperatives 12 thousand customers did not lose power. Power was restored to all homes and businesses within a month. More than 40 thousand power poles had to be replaced. Telephone service was knocked out to many areas... and water and sewer service failed in some places.
Since the winter of 1987-88... only the Winters of 2000-01 and 2002-03 have averaged below normal on temperatures in Little Rock.
The official outlook issued by the National Weather Service for the upcoming winter indicates that temperatures should trend toward being below normal over the southeastern half of Arkansas. Precipitation should trend toward being below normal over the eastern half of the state. This outlook is based on El Nino /a warming of the waters in the Pacific Ocean/ increasing somewhat. If this increase does not occur... adjustments may have to be made to the outlook.
The Table below shows wintertime normals for Arkansas.
City normal high normal low normal precipitation Bentonville 47.0 24.7 8.25 Eureka Springs 48.6 28.4 8.60 Fayetteville 47.5 27.0 7.75 Harrison 47.4 28.1 8.85 Mountain Home 46.8 26.0 9.68 Jonesboro 48.6 28.9 11.10 Fort Smith 51.3 30.5 8.35 Batesville 52.0 30.8 10.32 Newport 49.1 31.0 11.54 Dardanelle 52.7 30.7 10.64 Searcy 51.6 27.8 12.11 Conway 51.5 30.8 11.43 Mena 51.4 29.1 11.96 Hot Springs 53.6 31.7 12.82 Little Rock 52.5 33.2 11.65 North Little Rock 52.0 34.1 11.17 Pine Bluff 53.4 33.8 13.62 Camden 55.9 32.7 13.78 Monticello 55.1 32.8 14.94 El Dorado 57.2 34.8 13.97 Texarkana 56.2 37.6 11.71
An important thing to note regarding the outlook for the coming winter... no matter what the temperature outlook indicates... variability can be expected in the temperature patterns during the winter. There are usually some periods of noticeably cold weather interspersed with milder periods.
Seasonal outlooks are not specific enough to say whether there will be any big outbreaks of severe thunderstorms or tornadoes during the winter. However... El Nino patterns in the winter typically favor less severe weather than normal.
Likewise... seasonal outlooks cannot be specific regarding large ice or snowstorms. However... the temperature and precipitation trends expected during the upcoming winter suggest that there will be at least a few bouts of wintry forms of precipitation during the winter.