Ice Storm in Arkansas, December 3 to 4, 2002

Name: Ice Storm in Arkansas, December 3 to 4, 2002
Start: 2002-12-03T20:30
End: 2002-12-04T06:00
Location: Arkansas

December 3 to 4, 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.

An upper level system system moving out of the desert southwest interacted with cold air in place across northwest Arkansas to produce freezing rain from the evening hours of December 3rd into the morning hours of December 4th. While roads remained mainly wet and few accidents occurred until the afternoon of the 4th when snow fell, ice formed on power lines and trees. This ice resulted in 14,400 homes and businesses to be without power at one time or another. The outages were less numerous across the western parts of Washington and Benton counties but became more widespread to the east near and into Carroll and Madison counties. A few of the communities hit the hardest were Bethel Heights, Lowell, Elkins, Wesley, Hindsville and Eureka Springs. The inclement weather caused school closings in Eureka Springs, Huntsville and Green Forrest.

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 3, 8:10 PM CST, 20 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 3, 8:10 PM CST, 20 minutes before

EASTERN OKLAHOMA/NORTHWEST ARKANSAS FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL
WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OKLAHOMA
810 PM CST TUE DEC 3 2002

WIDE AREA OF PRECIP CONTINUES TO OVERSPREAD THE REGION. TEMPERATURES
THROUGH THE EVENING HAVE REMAINED NEARLY STEADY. IT APPEARS THAT SURFACE
FREEZING LINE WILL REMAIN NORTHWEST OF INTERSTATE 44 THROUGHOUT THE
NIGHT...WITH 8H FREEZING LINE NORTH OF THAT. WILL UPDATE FORECAST TO
RAISE MINIMUM TEMPS A DEGREE OR TWO ACROSS THE MIDDLE PORTION OF THE
CWA...INCLUDING TULSA METRO. WILL ALSO REMOVE SNOW OR ICE
ACCUMULATION WORDING IN FIRST PERIOD FOR THE SAME AREA. UPDATE
WILL BE OUT SHORTLY.

FORECAST ID= 06
.TSA...
OK...WINTER STORM WARNING FOR TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY FOR ZONES
OKZ054>071.

AR...WINTER STORM WARNING FOR TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY FOR ZONES
ARZ001>002...ARZ010>011.

Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 3, 6:00 AM CST, 14 hours 30 minutes before

ARZ001-002-010-011-019-020-029-OKZ049-053>076-041200-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
600 AM CST TUE DEC 03 2002

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

.DAY ONE...
WINTER WEATHER OUTLOOK

AREA 1...ALONG AND NORTH OF A LINE FROM OKEMAH TO FAYETTEVILLE

PROBABILITY OF ICING/SIGNIFICANT ICING...90/40
PROBABILITY OF SNOW/SIGNIFICANT SNOW...90/70

AREA 2...ALONG AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM OKEMAH TO FAYETTEVILLE

PROBABILITY OF ICING/SIGNIFICANT ICING...30/10
PROBABILITY OF SNOW/SIGNIFICANT SNOW...30/10

DISCUSSION...
A MIXTURE OF RAIN...SLEET AND SNOW IS EXPECTED ACROSS THE AREA THIS
AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT. THE PRECIPITATION WILL START AS RAIN THIS
AFTERNOON AS AN UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE APPROACHES FROM THE WEST.
THE RAIN COULD INITIALLY BE MIXED WITH SLEET OR SNOW NORTH AND WEST
OF TULSA. AS THE ATMOSPHERE COOLS DOWN THE RAIN WILL CHANGE OVER TO
A SLEET/SNOW MIXTURE ALONG AND NORTH OF A OKEMAH TO FAYETTEVILLE
LINE THIS EVENING AND EVENTUALLY TO ALL SNOW LATE TONIGHT WITH 3 TO
5 INCHES OF ACCUMULATION POSSIBLE BY WEDNESDAY MORNING. THE RAIN MAY
MIX WITH SLEET OR SNOW LATE TONIGHT SOUTH OF A OKEMAH TO
FAYETTEVILLE LINE.

REFER TO WINTER STORM WATCH /OKCWSWTUL/ FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

SIGNIFICANT ICING IS DEFINED AS 1/4 OR GREATER ACCUMULATION.
SIGNIFICANT SNOW IS DEFINED AS 4 OR GREATER ACCUMULATION.

.SPOTTER / EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ACTION STATEMENT...SPOTTER
ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...
THE PRECIPITATION WILL CONTINUE INTO WEDNESDAY AS THE UPPER LEVEL
DISTURBANCE MOVES ACROSS THE AREA. THE PRECIPITATION WILL TRANSITION
TO SNOW ACROSS MOST OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA...NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL
ARKANSAS WEDNESDAY MORNING WITH ADDITIONAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS
POSSIBLE ACROSS NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS. THE
PRECIPITATION WILL COME TO AN END BY WEDNESDAY EVENING AS THE UPPER
LEVEL DISTURBANCE MOVES TO THE EAST OF THE AREA.

THE NEXT CHANCE OF RAIN WILL COME ON SATURDAY AS A COLD FRONT MOVES
INTO THE AREA.

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 ice storm. Local standard time, as filed.

Ice Storm, Benton

When: December 3, 8:30 PM CST to December 4, 6:00 AM CST
Where: Benton forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 36.339, -94.256 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice Storm, Carroll

When: December 3, 8:30 PM CST to December 4, 6:00 AM CST
Where: Carroll forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 36.341, -93.538 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice Storm, Madison

When: December 3, 8:30 PM CST to December 4, 6:00 AM CST
Where: Madison forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 36.011, -93.725 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice Storm, Washington

When: December 3, 8:30 PM CST to December 4, 6:00 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

Ice Storm: Freezing rain accumulating a quarter inch or more of ice, or less where it caused significant damage.

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: 5325344, 5325345, 5325346, 5325347.