Wintry Weather Possible To Start New Year

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

After a mild New Year’s Eve, a fast-moving cold front could bring rain, snow and subfreezing temperatures to Northwest Arkansas tonight and early Thursday morning. The wintry mix could put road crews through their fi rst test since early December’s ice and heavy snow.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday forecast a 50 percent chance for rain turning to snow as temperatures sink to about 20 degrees. Whatever falls likely will be in small amounts, said meteorologist Peter Snyder in the Tulsa, Okla., offce. AccuWeather, a private forecasting service, predicted mostly cloudy conditions with a trivial chance of snow.

“It looks like it’s going to be a pretty fast-moving system,” Snyder said. “Any kind of accumulations look like somewhere between 1 to 2 inches probably would be the highest.”

Wet roads could become icy as the temperature falls, Snyder added, but it likely wouldn’t be a major problem.

“The amount could be so small that it just evaporates,” he said.

After early December’s storm, county and state road crews were roundly criticized for streets that remained clogged by ice and several inches of snow for almost a week. One photo showing snow-covered Arkansas highways abruptly clearing at the Missouri border gained so much attention on social media Arkansas off cials pledged improvement.

“We know what perception was created last time, and we’re bound and determined to prove to the citizens of Arkansas that we can and will do better,” said Randy Ort, a spokesman for the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department, which would clear Interstate 540 and Highways 71, 102 and others if needed.

In general, the state and Washington and Benton counties are leaving less to chance, oft cials said.

“This afternoon we’re going to have all our trucks prepared, loaded with sand and salt,” Terry Nalley, Benton County’s administrator of Public Services who oversees county roads, said Tuesday. “We’re getting our trucks ready early, earlier than what we did before. When the first snowflake falls, all we’ve got to do is pick up the phone.”

In Washington County, assistant road superintendent Shawn Shrum said crews would install gravel beds on four trucks in preparation Tuesday afternoon.

“It sounds kinda light but there could be those slick spots,” he said. “Really, if you don’t get at least 2 inches of snow, you can’t plow it.”

As for changing or improving from last time, Shrum and Ort said there isn’t much more road departments can do unless taxpayers want to invest in more equipment than the counties’ handful of plows and trucks. Both said December’s storm was unusual in that it started with a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow followed by days without sunlight and below freezing temperatures.

“We don’t have unlimited funds, and we have to be good stewards,” Ort said. “Does it make sense to invest a lot of money in equipment that may sit idle 51 weeks of the year? So we have to very careful about that.”