Southern Arkansas residents will see a sudden drop in temperatures this weekend as an arctic cold front makes its way into the state and moves southeast.
Gary Chatelain, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Shreveport, said the front should be across Missouri and Kansas today, moving into southern Arkansas on Saturday afternoon.
“You’re going to see really falling temperatures Saturday afternoon,” Chatelain said. “We’re going to go from like 50s maybe to 30s. A 20-degree drop, it’s huge.”
Chatelain said the front has been moving quickly south, noting it was at the North Pole a mere three days ago, which is why the temperature shift will be so sudden.
“When it comes this south this fast, it just doesn’t modify,” Chatelain said of the cold front.
South Arkansas should see some scattered showers and thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight, with a possibility of hail. But it should clear up by early Saturday as the cold front moves in, he said, which is perfect timing as the area will avoid any ice or snow, unlike much of northern Arkansas.
“It’s just too far north to really zap us,” he said. “If it was any farther south we’d get, probably, an inch or two of snow. … It may transition from rain to snow for like an hour or two,” but the ground will be too warm to hold any accumulation if that does happen.
“The timing is perfect for us. It could be a lot worse if it was set up differently.”
That snow is expecting to cause some travel issues in northern Arkansas on Saturday, he said, but in south Arkansas the only travel issue will be the wind. He said there will be crosswinds on I-30 and I-20 with 20 to 30 mph sustained winds.
“I’m talking really, really windy, and falling temperatures the whole time,” Chatelain said.
The strong winds are expected to stick around through Sunday morning and that wind chill will likely make it feel much colder than it actually is, he said, adding that it could feel like single digits at times, even though the temperature is unlikely to drop below 20 degrees.
The cold front will come in Saturday and linger most of Sunday before the temperature begins to warm up again, he said.
But another strong cold front is expected to move in later next week.