Front dumps rain, cools down state

NW Arkansas roads closed; 16 counties get freeze warning

Robert Brown of the Bentonville Parks and Recreation Department snaps a photo Thursday of floodwaters overrunning the dam at Lake Bella Vista Park.
Robert Brown of the Bentonville Parks and Recreation Department snaps a photo Thursday of floodwaters overrunning the dam at Lake Bella Vista Park.

Heavy rains soaked the state Thursday as a cold front moved through and temperatures dropped by more than 30 degrees in many Arkansas towns.

In Northwest Arkansas, Benton County Judge Robert D. Clinard issued an emergency disaster declaration after 4 to 5 inches of rain fell. The county closed portions of 54 roads because of flooding, and the Benton County Office of Emergency Management responded to distress calls from eight motorists stranded in high waters, said Mike Dixon, the office’s director.

Later in the day, the National Weather Service in Jackson, Miss., issued tornado warnings for Ashley and Chicot counties in southeast Arkansas after a weather spotter reported seeing a twister touch down near Crossett. However, the weather service in Jackson did not confirm there was a tornado Thursday, meteorologist Brad Bryant said.

An Ashley County sheriff ’s office dispatcher said winds toppled trees along Arkansas 133 near Crossett, but there were no reports of damage to homes.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service in North Little Rock issued a freeze warning for 16 counties in the north-central portion of the state. Meteorologists forecast temperatures would dip into the low 30s Thursday evening and again tonight.

The counties under the freeze warning are Baxter, Boone, Cleburne, Conway, Fulton, Izard, Johnson, Logan, Marion, Newton, Pope, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren and Yell.

In Benton County on Thursday, Siloam Springs School District bus routes were limited because of flooding.

“We tell our drivers, ‘Don’t go where you can’t see the bottom,’” school transportation director Steve Avery said. “There were a lot of places like that today.”

Although water had receded there by the afternoon, large amounts of debris may keep some roads impassible for days, Dixon said.

Officials had closed Price Coffee Road between U.S. 72 and Northeast J Street in Bentonville after a portion of a hillside weakened by the rainfall slid into the roadway. There were no injuries.

Lightning struck a home on Misti Court in Siloam Springs around 3 a.m. Thursday, sparking a fire, authorities said. The lightning ran down a natural-gas line and caused the home’s water heater to explode, said Holland Hayden, communication director for the city.

Temperatures plunged as the system moved through, said National Weather Service meteorologist John Lewis in North Little Rock.

Fayetteville’s temperature dipped from 74 degrees at 3 a.m. Thursday to 42 degrees by noon. Fort Smith, which saw the state’s high temperature reading at 84 degrees early Thursday, recorded a reading of 48 degrees at 5 p.m. Harrison dropped from 75 degrees to 41 degrees after the cold front passed. Little Rock’s temperature went from 82 to 48 in about 12 hours.

“It was a sharp cold front,” Lewis said. “I think we had an indication in March that we’re still going to be getting shots of cold air.”

Stronger storms didn’t materialize, however, as forecasters first predicted. The weather pattern was similar to one that roared through Arkansas and spawned four tornadoes on April 10.

“The instability wasn’t quite there,” Lewis said of Thursday’s frontal system. “We had some storms and heavy rain, but not the [violent] storms.”

Temperatures are expected to drop into the 30s tonight across all of the state before a warming trend moves back in. Most of the state will see readings in the upper 60s and low 70s by Sunday.

Information for this article was contributed by Ryan McGeeney of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Jeff Della Rosa and Janelle Jessen of the Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Arkansas, Pages 12 on 04/19/2013

Upcoming Events