Heavy Snow in Arkansas, December 23 to 24, 2002

Name: Heavy Snow in Arkansas, December 23 to 24, 2002
Start: 2002-12-23T12:00
End: 2002-12-24T10:00
Location: Arkansas

December 23 to 24, 2002 · NWS TSA · 4 events in 4 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 4 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 4

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS TSA wrote it up.

Heavy snow began to fall across northwest Arkansas during the early afternoon hours of the 23rd in response to the approach of an upper level system moving out of the southern rockies into the southern plains. The snow fell at a rate of one to two inches an hour across Benton and Carroll counties and the northern part of Washington and Madison counties. The heavy snow caused roads to become slick and hazardous and several automobiles slid into ditches or into each other. The heavy snow also caused a few power outages including one that halted service to two hundred customers between Fayetteville and Elkins. The snow let up and stopped accumulating during the early evening hours with several location reporting 4 to 8 inches of snow. The snow started accumulating again during the early morning hours of the 24th before finally letting up for good later that morning. Another two to four inches accumulated during that time span. Some total snowfall reports for the 23rd and 24th included: 15 inches at Rockhouse, 12 inches at Berryville, 10 inches at Eureka Springs, 7 inches at Rogers, 7 inches at Bentonville, 6 inches at Huntsville, 6 inches at Springdale and 5 inches at Fayetteville.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Tulsa, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 23, 3:45 AM CST, 8 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 23, 3:45 AM CST, 8 hours 15 minutes before

EASTERN OKLAHOMA/NORTHWEST ARKANSAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OKLAHOMA
345 AM CST MON DEC 23 2002

DECIDED TO UPGRADE OUR WATCH TO A WARNING.  KEPT THE SAME AREA AS
THE WATCH.

UPPER SYSTEM IN THE DESERT SOUTHWEST WILL SWING INTO THE SOUTHERN
PLAINS TODAY AND TONIGHT AND THEN OFF TO THE EAST TOMORROW.  RAIN
ALREADY FALLING ACROSS A GOOD PORTION OF THE AREA TO THE SOUTH AND
WEST OF TULSA.  COLDER AIR WILL FILTER INTO THE AREA FROM THE NORTH
AS THE SURFACE REFLECTION OF THE UPPER SYSTEM MOVES ACROSS TEXAS AND
INTO LOUISIANA TONIGHT.  EXPECT THE RAIN TO TURN TO SNOW SOMETIME
THIS AFTERNOON OVER NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA.  IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS THE
BUFKIT SOUNDINGS SHOULD A WARM LAYER ALOFT AND THE BUFKIT ALGORITHMS
SHOWED MORE OF A POTENTIAL FOR SLEET INSTEAD OF SNOW THIS AFTERNOON
INTO THE EARLY PART OF THE EVENING.  THIS PRECIP SHOULD CHANGE TO
ALL SNOW THIS EVENING.  IN THE SOUTH EXPECT THE PRECIPITATION TO
REMAIN RAIN THROUGH THE EVENING BEFORE TRANSITIONING TO SNOW
OVERNIGHT.  SNOW AMOUNTS OF AS MUCH AS 5 TO 8 INCHES FELL OUT OF THE
GRIDS FOR MUCH OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND 2 TO 5 INCHES WERE
CALCULATED FOR THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF ARKANSAS.  GENERALLY 1 TO 3
INCHES WERE MENTIONED IN THE SOUTH LATER TONIGHT AND THIS AREA WILL
HAVE TO BE MONITORED FOR A POSSIBLE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY TONIGHT.

THE PRECIPITATION SHOULD LOSE INTENSITY FROM WEST TO EAST LATER
TONIGHT AS WITNESSED IN THE ETA MODEL QPF.  COULD SEE SOME LIGHT
SNOW LINGER INTO THE MORNING BUT DO NOT EXPECT MUCH ADDITIONAL QPF.

TEMP WISE WENT CLOSE TO THE GFS MOS NUMBERS.  LOOKS LIKE IT WILL
STAY COLD ENOUGH THAT MOST OF THE AREA WILL SEE A WHITE CHRISTMAS.

CHRISTMAS DAY SHOULD BE SUNNY AND COLD.  ANOTHER WAVE COMES BY
THURSDAY BUT THE ASSOCIATED MOISTURE WILL BE MARGINAL AND HAVE ONLY
INCLUDED A SLIGHT CHANCE OF LIGHT SNOW OR LIGHT RAIN WITH IT.  A
WARMING TREND SHOULD FOLLOW INTO THE WEEKEND.

TUL  37  25  30  14 / 100 100  50  10
FSM  40  32  33  16 / 100 100  50  10
MLC  40  29  31  16 / 100 100  50  10
BVO  37  26  30   8 / 100 100  50  10
FYV  38  29  29  11 / 100 100  50  10
BYV  36  25  27  13 / 100 100  50  10
MIO  36  24  27  10 / 100 100  50  10
MKO  42  28  28  14 / 100 100  50  10
F10  41  28  29  15 / 100 100  50  10
HHW  42  31  34  20 / 100 100  50  10

FORECAST ID= 17
ABBAS

.TSA...
AR...WINTER STORM WARNING FOR THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TONIGHT FOR
ZONES ARZ001>002...ARZ010>011.

OK...WINTER STORM WARNING FOR THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TONIGHT FOR
ZONES OKZ054>070.

Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 23, 6:00 AM CST, 6 hours before

ARZ001-002-010-011-019-020-029-OKZ049-053>076-241200-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
600 AM CST MON DEC 23 2002

THIS OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS AS WELL AS
MUCH OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY

WINTER WEATHER OUTLOOK
AREA 1...NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS GENERALLY NORTH
OF A LINE FROM OKEMAH TO HUNTSVILLE ARKANSAS.

PROBABILITY OF ICING/ICE ACCUMULATION 1/4 OR GREATER...20/5
PROBABILITY OF SNOW/SNOW ACCUMULATION 4 OR GREATER...100/75
GIVEN PROBABILITIES REPRESENT THE POTENTIAL FOR AN OCCURRENCE
ANYWHERE IN THE DEFINED AREA.

DISCUSSION...
A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE OUT OF THE SOUTHWEST
INTO THE SOUTHERN PLAINS TODAY AND TONIGHT.  RAIN AND SCATTERED
THUNDERSTORMS HAVE ALREADY DEVELOPED OUT AHEAD OF THIS SYSTEM THIS
MORNING ACROSS TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA.  AS THE SYSTEM APPROACHES AND
COLDER AIR SPREADS INTO THE REGION...THE RAIN IS EXPECTED TO CHANGE
TO SNOW BEGINNING IN THE NORTH BY THIS AFTERNOON.  SIGNIFICANT SNOW
ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED ACROSS MUCH OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS LATER TODAY INTO TONIGHT.  SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF UP
TO 5 TO 8 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THE WARNING AREA...AND SOME LOCALLY
HIGHER AMOUNTS MAY OCCUR.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY
LIGHT SNOW IS EXPECTED TO LINGER INTO THE DAY ON TUESDAY...BUT
SHOULD BE ENDING AS THE UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM MOVES OUT OF THE AREA.
ANOTHER UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL THEN BRING THE NEXT CHANCE OF
PRECIPITATION TO THE AREA FOR THURSDAY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF LIGHT
RAIN OR LIGHT SNOW.

.SPOTTER / EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ACTION STATEMENT...
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL SHOULD CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST
FORECASTS. PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST WINTER STORM WARNING
(OKCWSWTUL) ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN TULSA
FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS.

RELATED GRAPHICAL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT...
WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/TULSA

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

4 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Benton

When: December 23, 12:00 PM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where: Benton forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 36.339, -94.256 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Carroll

When: December 23, 12:00 PM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where: Carroll forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 36.341, -93.538 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Madison

When: December 23, 12:00 PM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where: Madison forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 36.011, -93.725 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Washington

When: December 23, 12:00 PM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where: Washington forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.979, -94.216 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Heavy Snow: Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Arkansas in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Arkansas, December 2002

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5325358, 5325359, 5325360, 5325361.