FRIDAY MORNING: Snow flurries in the forecast for part of Arkansas.

  • National Weather Service
  • FRIDAY MORNING: Snow flurries in the forecast for part of Arkansas.

A late spring snow is in the offing for a big part of the Central U.S. and some of those flakes could fall in Arkansas, in the far northwestern corner. If so, it would be a record.

John Robinson of the National Weather Service provides the historical context:

Since we’ve had a lot of questions about Arkansas snows in April and/or May, here are some statistics worked up by Brian Smith, one of our senior forecasters…

For Arkansas:
Latest accumulating snow: 0.2 inch at Corning on April 24, 1910
Latest snow: Trace at Fayetteville, Gravette, and Harrison on April 30, 1903

For Little Rock:
Latest accumulating snow: 0.8 inch on March 30, 1987
Latest snow: Trace on April 19, 1983

We’ve gotten e-mails and seen comments online about people saying they had seen accumulating snow at various places in Arkansas in May. While it’s important to remember that weather records are taken from official observing stations only, the dates and years that people have said they saw snow in Arkansas in May would have been virtually impossible.

Also, It is important to note that, at various times over the years, there was a requirement that hail be reported as “snow” (technically, frozen precipitation) so there will be records from some years that show “snow” in the summer months.

Here is something I worked up last night in reply to a media e-mail. I had Brian Smith look this over, as well:

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