NWA Weather

[strmchsr77]

Dogwood Lane on Mt Sequoyah:

Our front yard:

Uprooted Trees in midtown Fayetteville:

Ice on Lines and Trees:

Mt Sequoyah:

Joyce Blvd In Fayetteville:

[zman9810]

Great pics! Mt. Sequoyah was absolutely beautiful- especially when the sun came out. It's kind of like a tornado- how can something so amazing be so destructive.........

[Mith242]

I agree, very nice pics. Thanks for posting them.

[strmchsr77]

No problem guys.

And the weather changes again. Ice storms one week, followed by temps in the 60s. Now a good chance of storms coming up for the beginning of the work week. Still a little early to tell if they will be severe but there is still a chance.

[Mith242]

Looks like a big thunderstorm cell is heading our way. It's already in southeast Washington County. Could be a tornado in the cell as well. Sounds like one tornado has already touched down in Oklahoma.

[strmchsr77]

Looks like a big thunderstorm cell is heading our way. It's already in southeast Washington County. Could be a tornado in the cell as well. Sounds like one tornado has already touched down in Oklahoma.

Yeah, I went chasing today and I got on that exact cell near the Stillwater area but it never really produced again. I saw quite a bit of hail and a good looking gust front. I'll post a couple of pics when I get the chance. A decent looking cell is just west of me in Tulsa now, so I am going to keep an eye on that. Tornado threat is way down but might have some good straight line winds.

[jim9251]

More trees and limbs down at the house due to that storm last night. What's next week locusts?

[strmchsr77]

Yeah, I went chasing today and I got on that exact cell near the Stillwater area but it never really produced again. I saw quite a bit of hail and a good looking gust front. I'll post a couple of pics when I get the chance. A decent looking cell is just west of me in Tulsa now, so I am going to keep an eye on that. Tornado threat is way down but might have some good straight line winds.

Here are a couple of pics from my first storm chase of 2009. It was extremely dark due to the clouds and being about 4 PM so the pics are not the best.

This is the gust front from the supercell that produced a large tornado in NW Oklahoma City. This is a hour or so later just east of Stillwater, OK.

This is the same supercell from about 15 miles south of it. It was prducing 80+ mph winds and large hail but it did not ever put down another tornado to my knowledge.

[zman9810]

Awesome pics, thanks! That seconds one is very clearly defined- is that the wall cloud?

[Mith242]

Yeah thanks for the pics.

[jim9251]

Nice today and I finally have all the limbs and a couple of trees cut and stacked. In driving around Fayetteville it appears that every single house on every street has limbs and debris stacked about 10 feet high, truck loads worth. Very sad to see. I wonder if we'll ever get this mess cleaned up?

[Mith242]

Nice today and I finally have all the limbs and a couple of trees cut and stacked. In driving around Fayetteville it appears that every single house on every street has limbs and debris stacked about 10 feet high, truck loads worth. Very sad to see. I wonder if we'll ever get this mess cleaned up?

Yeah unfortunately it's going to take a long time to get everything cleaned up. Sounds like Fayetteville is looking into trying to sell a lot of the tree limbs and such to a company. Sounds like there might be a few companies interested. I don't remember what they all were but at least one of them was a paper company.

[zman9810]

The costs for Fayetteville's cleanup from the ice storm will be around $4 million of which the city will only pay $500,000. FEMA and the state will pick up the rest. This doesn't include the costs of of all the private cleanup, just that piled up along the streets. It will be interesting to see a total of all cleanup costs when it is finished months from now.

Hope they get it picked up before everything turns green- would make for an unsightly spring if not.

[Mith242]

The costs for Fayetteville's cleanup from the ice storm will be around $4 million of which the city will only pay $500,000. FEMA and the state will pick up the rest. This doesn't include the costs of of all the private cleanup, just that piled up along the streets. It will be interesting to see a total of all cleanup costs when it is finished months from now.

Hope they get it picked up before everything turns green- would make for an unsightly spring if not.

I think I heard something about dividing the city into 4 zones and bidding out each zone. Springdale had a little bit of controversy over their bidding the cleanup. Apparently some wanted a local company to be picked. But an out of state company was picked instead. But they said the out of state company was better equipped and they want the cleanup to happen as soon as possible and not drag out. I've wondered if Fayetteville could run into the same problem. Either way though looks like it's still going to be a while before everything's picked up.

In weather news looks like we're in a roller coaster ride in that aspect. Temps are going to be bouncing back and forth. But it looks like eventually there will be a warm up next week.

[Mith242]

I've noticed some of the tree limbs finally getting picked up. Seems like the contracted work started on Sunday and has been picking up steam. Although I'm sure it will still be a while before it's all gone. After temps were cooler over the weekend than predicted seems the same for today. I could have sworn were were supposed to hit 60 or close to it. Looks like we're barely going to get into the 50's. But it's supposed to warm up later this week.

[zman9810]

I've noticed some of the tree limbs finally getting picked up. Seems like the contracted work started on Sunday and has been picking up steam. Although I'm sure it will still be a while before it's all gone. After temps were cooler over the weekend than predicted seems the same for today. I could have sworn were were supposed to hit 60 or close to it. Looks like we're barely going to get into the 50's. But it's supposed to warm up later this week.

I watched some of the debris removal today and wonder if Fayetteville is getting their money's worth. If the city is paying by the cubic yard and the cubic yards are calculated by how many truck loads of debris is picked up I'd say the city is paying more than they should. The machine that is collecting the debris is a dump truck with another trailer bed behind it and a crane between the two. The crane very loosely loads the debris into the dump beds without tamping it down at all. There is room for a lot more debris per load than is being picked up. I sure hope there is some oversight on this project.

[Mith242]

I guess it's too warm to be sleet. So I guess it's small hail that's coming down. Sorta surprising, seems a bit cool for something like this. Doesn't seem to be any thunderstorms in the area.

[Mith242]

I knew there was a chance for mixed precip this morning. But I was still surprised to wake up to snow. With being 70 the other day I didn't think it would stick at all. But it has managed to stick a bit on the grassy and elevated areas a bit.

[strmchsr77]

I guess it's too warm to be sleet. So I guess it's small hail that's coming down. Sorta surprising, seems a bit cool for something like this. Doesn't seem to be any thunderstorms in the area.

I guess I left town before I saw anything like that yesterday, but I think that I know what you are referring to. I believe it is called graupel. It is sort of snow, or a soft hail, if that make any sense. The temps at ground level can be well above freezing while a few thousand feet up can be well below. I have seen it once or twice before but it is still quite rare for NW Arkansas.

[Mith242]

I guess I left town before I saw anything like that yesterday, but I think that I know what you are referring to. I believe it is called graupel. It is sort of snow, or a soft hail, if that make any sense. The temps at ground level can be well above freezing while a few thousand feet up can be well below. I have seen it once or twice before but it is still quite rare for NW Arkansas.

On the news they were referring to it as hail. Sounds like it was scattered around the area. But they could have been simplifying it for the general public as well. It was sorta cool up here but warmer just south of the Ozarks. I don't think there was anything very serious in the state but there was quite a few pop up shower. I just found it interesting because there wasn't any rain mixed with it. Sometimes you get pockets of hail right before some rain or in the rain. Anyway it was sorta interesting.

I had thought the snow would pretty much be over. But we still seem to be getting flurries even occasional light snow all throughout the morning. Looks like another pocket of snow could be on it's way here. I don't think it's going to cause much trouble on the roads, just bridges and overpasses perhaps. Looks like I had around a quarter to half of inch of snow on my car earlier.

[Mith242]

It looked like another strong band of snow was coming in early last night but soon fell apart. At one point last night it looked like the snow was sticking to the roads and there was quite a bit of blowing snow. But looking out this morning the roads look clear now and also looks like some of the snow might have evaporated in the dry air. Been quite a bit cooler than predicted. Yesterday afternoon in the mid 20's with wind chills near single digits. Now this morning we're in the teens with wind chills near zero. But it looks like a gradual warm up this up coming week. Looks like we could be back into the 70's mid to late week.

[Mith242]

I originally posted this over in the Pic o' the day topic in the NWA forum. But thought I'd put it over here as well since it's weather related.

[Mith242]

A little off topic, but it's somewhat weather related. I hadn't thought much about how the ice storm will affect local parks and trails and such. I tried going to Lake Fayetteville only to see the road from the south closed off. I'm guessing it's because of fallen limbs and trees. Apparently some of the parks and trails in nearby State Parks or National Forests will also stayed closed for a while. A number of them not opening possibly till May.

After a slight cool down yesterday and some cooler temps this morning it warmed back up. One more day of warm weather before a cold front cools things back down again.

[Mith242]

We're under a Winter Weather Advisory now. Sounds like they're predicting some mixed precip in the early hours of Thursday. Possibly getting up to 2-3" of sleet and snow when it's all said and done. But of course we know how the weather is around here. Who knows what we'll wake up to tomorrow morning.

[jim9251]

My Mustang convertible is sitting in the garage begging to be driven...sigh.