The lingering cold weather and successive winter storms have left Northwest Arkansans cranking up the heat, winterizing homes as best they can and buying last-minute groceries and snow shovels to combat snow and ice.
“It’s been a tough winter for us so far,” said John McCoy, general store manager of The Home Depot in Fayetteville.
Fast Fact
Average Temperature
The average high in Fayetteville for February is 51.1 degrees.
Source: National Weather Service
The home improvement box store has sold out of items like Ice Melt, an ice-melting product that has seen shortages nationwide. McCoy said people also are buying insulation to try to keep the heat from seeping through windows and door frames and being siphoned out through attics.
In Rogers, residents are snapping up heaters at Lowe’s, said Robert Jones, assistant store manager.
“We are out of the bulk of them,” Jones said.
Another round of snow is expected today, according to the National Weather Service in Tulsa. The 1 to 3 inches of snow expected in some areas is on top of several inches that fell across Northwest Arkansas about a week ago.
Snow remains piled high in some parking lots with pavement slick with ice. Some roads remain icy in spots. Vehicles were being driven on mostly cleared roads Sunday, but the weather service advised travelers might have to cancel plans because of wintry weather by Tuesday.
The new wintry forecast has school districts watching closely. West Fork Public Schools canceled classes for today on Sunday evening.
Residents are also dealing with freezing temperatures. The high in Rogers on Sunday was 32 degrees. Temperatures are expected to be colder today.
The cold weather has residents turning up the heat and keeping it there, if they can afford it, said Jayme Hopkins, a Tulsa, Okla., resident who was visiting family in Northwest Arkansas on Sunday. He was loading his truck with a cooktop he bought at Lowe’s in Fayetteville.
Hopkins said he expects to pay more to keep warm this year than last year, but the cost of keeping his family comfortable is worth it.
“We’re going to pay the extra money,” he said.
The price of residential heating oil has gone up 7 cents per gallon to $4.24 per gallon for the period that ended Feb. 3, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration news release last week. That’s 15 cents higher than a year ago. Residential propane prices went down by 12 cents per gallon last week, but the price is nearly $1.59 per gallon higher than the same time a year ago.
Jones said many people have already winterized their homes. On Sunday evening, hundreds of people were shopping at grocery stores.
At Walmart on Walnut Street in Rogers, Juan Rivas unpacked a shopping cart full of food with his family while holding his baby wrapped in a fleece blanket. Rivas said he worried about the coming snow and cold weather because of his children. He bought extra milk during this Sunday’s weekly shopping trip, just in case, he said.
McCoy said Northwest Arkansas residents are dealing with a winter that has stayed colder longer than usual.
More snow, up to about 3 inches mainly near Interstate 40, is expected today, according to the Weather Service.