textproduct: Little Rock

KEY MESSAGES

Issued at 1250 AM CST Wed Jan 28 2026

-Hazardous travel conditions are expected to continue over the next several days, especially on secondary and country roads, as dense snow/sleet pack slowly erode.

-Brief bout of very light mixed precipitation is possible Thursday evening into early Friday. Little to no accumulation is expected

-Another round of arctic air is expected by the weekend with gradually warming trend into early next week.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 1250 AM CST Wed Jan 28 2026

Skies were mostly cloudy early this Wednesday morning as an upper level disturbance moves across the Mid-South within background NW flow. Precip was not associated with this upper feature and clouds should decrease in coverage heading into late morning/early afternoon hours today. Current conds to the W of AR featured patchy areas of freezing fog which may spread into portions of SW, Cntrl, and E-Cntrl AR during the predawn hours. Thus, will monitor for the potential of a freezing fog advisory expansion for some portions of the state if visibilities decrease. Morning temps were hovering in the 20s.

A brief lull bitterly cold temps are expected today, Thursday, and some of the day on Friday (mainly SW AR). Highs over the next couple of days are anticipated to reach the 40s across a good portion of the CWA. These temps combined with mostly sunny skies today and partly to mostly cloudy skies on Thursday will aid in efficient melting of a dense snow/sleet pack which has been in place across state for several days now.

By Thursday evening, another weak compact upper impulse with an associated surface low is forecast to track across the region into Friday morning. Short duration return flow on Thursday should limit available moisture as these features sweep across the state. At this time, there could be light mix of wintry weather over N-Cntrl/NE AR with perhaps a few rain showers over Cntrl AR. QPF amounts appear to be around 0.10 or less with this system. Limited snowfall accumulations around half of an inch or less will be possible over N-Cntrl AR, otherwise little additional impacts are expected. Available low-level moisture will be monitored over the next couple of days for increases/decreases to QPF potential.

Another surge of Arctic cold and dry air is expected heading into the weekend. By Saturday afternoon, 1040-1045mb surface high should be centered over the region. The coldest day should be Saturday with highs only topping out the low/mid 20s (Cntrl/N AR) to near 30 (S AR). Lows Friday night and Saturday night are expected to dip into the single digits (Cntrl/N AR) to mid teens (Srn AR). Wind chills Friday night/Saturday morning could feel like 5 to 15 degrees below zero (Cntrl/Nrn AR) to single digits (Srn AR). If these wind chill values remain unchanged, cold weather headlines may be needed for portions of the state.

Progressive H500 pattern will eject NW flow regime and the surface high towards the E with ridging building into the Four Corners region. A nice warm up is expected early next week as surface winds switch around the S/SW. Upper level pattern will transition from NW to quasi-zonal. Temps are expected to climb into the 40s to near 50 degrees. Melting of remaining snow/sleet pack will commence.

AVIATION

(00Z TAFS) Issued at 530 PM CST Wed Jan 28 2026

VFR conditions will prevail for a large part of the forecast TAF cycle. Some patchy FZFG is possible across parts of southern one half of Arkansas after 08z through 15z Thursday. Winds will remain light through the period.

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS

Batesville AR 21 39 22 32 / 0 0 20 0 Camden AR 23 52 30 40 / 0 0 10 0 Harrison AR 23 43 19 31 / 0 10 10 0 Hot Springs AR 23 47 28 39 / 0 0 10 0 Little Rock AR 23 43 26 35 / 0 0 10 0 Monticello AR 26 50 31 37 / 0 0 10 0 Mount Ida AR 23 48 28 40 / 0 0 10 0 Mountain Home AR 21 41 18 31 / 0 10 20 0 Newport AR 20 36 22 30 / 0 0 20 0 Pine Bluff AR 24 47 27 35 / 0 0 10 0 Russellville AR 22 46 25 38 / 0 0 10 0 Searcy AR 19 40 23 33 / 0 0 20 0 Stuttgart AR 22 43 25 33 / 0 0 10 0

LZK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

None.