National Weather Forecaster Colby Pope says it’s time to be weather aware as strong storms are set to move into the area March 14 (Thursday), followed by a cold snap late this weekend into early next week.
“We’ll have one more nice day, today. We’ll see temperatures near 80 but as we get into Thursday we’ll have a frontal system approaching the area and see the likelihood of strong to severe storms with the chance of large hail, damaging winds and we cannot rule out the possibility of a few tornadoes. It will pay to be weather aware Thursday and into Thursday night,” Pope said.
The remainder of the work week will be more mild and with temperatures returning to the upper 60s and lower 70s through Saturday, but Pope said those who have started their gardens or have plants sensitive to the cold will need to watch the weather.
“We have another cold front. This one won’t have any precipitation with it and so it will be what we call a dry cold front. That will come through on Sunday and then we’re going to see some cold weather Sunday morning, Monday morning and Tuesday morning,” Pope said. “We’ll see temperatures in the mornings around the freezing mark on Sunday morning and as we get into Monday the likelihood we will see freezing conditions increases as the temperatures will be in the upper 20s so any sensitive vegetation will need to be brought indoors. That’s the main concern Sunday night through Tuesday morning with those lower temperatures.”
As Pope said, tornadoes can occur at any time of the year in Arkansas as many have witnessed in years passed, however, according to Weather.govthe primary recognized “tornado seasons” are from March to May and from November to January for the Natural State.
“We can have tornadoes any month of the year in Arkansas but we’re in that time period. We’re getting real close to we’re in meteorological spring which is March 1 but later this month we’ll get into actual spring. It’s time to get your severe weather plans in place and start focusing because we will start seeing round after round of severe weather over the next couple of months especially,” Pope said.
Creating a severe weather preparedness plan and kit can make a big difference in how you and your family make it through severe weather.
For more information and recommendations on what to include in your severe weather preparedness kit visit https://www.weather.gov/owlie/emergencysupplieskit.
For suggestions on best practices to create a severe weather preparedness plan for you and your family, visit https://www.weather.gov/ama/severesafetyplan and for guidelines for best practices to stay safe in severe weather visit https://www.weather.gov/ama/severesafetytips.
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
