Despite Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction earlier this month, the tri-county area is expecting a much different prediction according to National Weather Service Forecaster Dennis Cavenaugh.
“Today we’ve had near record or record high temperatures across much of the state of Arkansas, including North Central and Northeastern Arkansas. For your readers, we do have a warm night tonight and another warm to near record heat day tomorrow across the natural state,” Cavenaugh said. “We do have a front that’s going to come through late in the day tomorrow and temperatures are going to go down a little bit, but not nearly from what we’ve come from when Arkansas was shut down for a week with all the sleet and and the cold air in place.”
Cavenaugh said after a slight cool down, temperatures will remain seasonal.
“After this cool down, we’re gonna get back towards seasonal normals. Even that looks like temperatures are going to remain above freezing, even for those morning lows, even for those overnight lows. So, I think for most here in early to mid February, it will feel pretty pleasant, especially during those daylight hours,” Cavenaugh said. “We will have some showers and perhaps thunderstorms to contend with Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. We may have to worry about some showers and thunderstorms this weekend as well, especially during the day on Saturday there, but overall, temperatures are going to remain pleasant.”
With near record heat, Cavenaugh said not to till the soil just yet as winter is not technically over.
“In the long range forecast it does look like more often than not we’re gonna be a little bit warmer than normal and I think as we get into the early spring, we, we are going to see at least a period of rain and more normal temperatures but we cannot rule out another week of cold in the future,” Cavenaugh said. “As we get into early spring we could see an uptick of rain, which Northern Arkansas needs. It doesn’t feel like drought conditions because it’s winter, but that end is in drought conditions.”
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