textproduct: Little Rock

KEY MESSAGES

Issued at 1245 PM CDT Fri Oct 16 2026

-Red Flag Warnings are in effect for portions of southern to southeast Arkansas through this afternoon. Elevated fire weather danger will extend through Saturday.

-Much cooler temperatures expected by this weekend, including possible frost conditions over portions of northern Arkansas.

-Warming trend back to above normal levels by the middle of next week.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 120 AM CDT Fri Oct 16 2026

Radar early this morning shows scattered showers across parts of central and north central Arkansas. The showers are associated with the upper shortwave trough moving across the central and northern plain dragging an attendant cold front through the state through this afternoon. Behind the front, cooler and breezy conditions will develop and then persist across the state through at least early this afternoon across the state. Winds will veer from south/southeast ahead of the boundary to north/northwest behind the boundary. Winds of 10 to 20 mph will be common with gusts to 30 mph possible across the state. By this evening, the upper trough will push into the eastern Great Lakes region and cold front will exit the state, with northwest flow becoming established across the state.

Model guidance keeps the state within northwest flow through at least the first half of the upcoming work week. The aforementioned trough that is dragging a cold front through the state today, will move to the lower Appalachians region on Saturday. The trough will move to the Carolinas region by Sunday with both the deterministic GFS and ECMWF showing the trough deepening by Saturday night into Sunday. At the same time, high pressure over the Bay of Campeche will expand northward into the western and northwest Gulf coast region Saturday night into Sunday. The cooler and drier air behind the front filtering into the state will lead to morning lows across the state in the 40s across the southern two thirds of the state this weekend, Lows across the northern half will be in the mid to upper 30s on Saturday and Sunday. Some patchy frost in higher terrain areas is not out of the question. High temperatures this weekend will run around 5 degrees below normal for the state through the end of the weekend.

As we head into the new work week, high pressure will continue to expand northward into the central Plains by late Sunday into Monday, as the upper trough and cut off low that brought cooler and drier air to the state continues to strengthen/deepen over the eastern seaboard. The upper trough will push off the eastern US coast as into the Atlantic Ocean by Monday. This will allow for the ridge axis of the ridge to move westward toward Arkansas with winds veer from north/northwest on Sunday night into Monday to south/southeast by Monday across the state. With the return of south to southeast flow across the state, temperatures will remain to above normal by the middle of the next work week.

AVIATION

(18Z TAFS) Issued at 1245 PM CDT Fri Oct 16 2026

VFR conditions will persist through the forecast period. Expect breezy north to northwest winds to persist through sunset, then diminish afterwards prior to north to northeasterly winds increasing again tomorrow with gusts 20-25 kts, especially for the central to southern Arkansas terminals.

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS

Batesville AR 44 65 39 68 / 0 0 0 0 Camden AR 44 68 40 72 / 0 0 0 0 Harrison AR 39 62 38 66 / 0 0 0 0 Hot Springs AR 44 67 41 70 / 0 0 0 0 Little Rock AR 46 67 42 69 / 0 0 0 0 Monticello AR 48 67 43 71 / 0 0 0 0 Mount Ida AR 41 67 38 70 / 0 0 0 0 Mountain Home AR 42 63 38 66 / 0 0 0 0 Newport AR 45 65 39 69 / 0 0 0 0 Pine Bluff AR 44 67 39 70 / 0 0 0 0 Russellville AR 43 68 41 69 / 0 0 0 0 Searcy AR 44 66 39 69 / 0 0 0 0 Stuttgart AR 46 68 40 71 / 0 0 0 0

LZK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

Red Flag Warning until 8 PM CDT this evening for ARZ065>069.