Arkansas, 2003

Heavy Snow in Arkansas, February 9, 2003

February 9, 2003 · NWS TSA · 7 events in 7 counties and zones

Heavy snow feel across much of Northwest Arkansas during the morning hours before tapering off to flurries during the early afternoon hours. The heaviest snow occured in Benton county as part of a band of heavy snow that extended southwest into Northeast Oklahoma.

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
7

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 feel across much of Northwest Arkansas during the morning hours before tapering off to flurries during the early afternoon hours. The heaviest snow occured in Benton county as part of a band of heavy snow that extended southwest into Northeast Oklahoma. Some snowfall amounts included 8 inches at Pea Ridge, 7 inches at Siloam Springs, 5 inches at Eureka Springs, 5 inches at Fayetteville and 4 inches at Fort Smith. This snow caused hazardous road conditions. One fatality occurred as a car slid off Highway 59 three miles north of Van Buren and hit a tree. Several other accidents occurred across the area but no other serious injuries were reported.

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 Feb 9, 3:15 AM CST, 1 hour 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 9, 3:15 AM CST, 1 hour 15 minutes before
EASTERN OKLAHOMA/NORTHWEST ARKANSAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OKLAHOMA
315 AM CST SUN FEB 9 2003

PRECIP FORECAST FOR TODAY IS THE MAIN PROBLEM.

SHORTWAVE WILL MOVE OUT OF WEST TEXAS AND ALONG THE RED RIVER TODAY
BEFORE SHIFTING EAST LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND TONNIGHT.  PRECIP
STARTING TO TAKE SHAPE OVER SOUTHWEST OKLAHOMA AND WESTERN NORTH
TEXAS THIS MORNING AND EXPECT IT TO SHIFT NORTHEAST DURING THE DAY.
THICKNESSES AND 8H TEMPS WOULD INDICATE IT SHOULD START AS SNOW
EXCEPT MAYBE AS RAIN IN THE SOUTH.  THERE IS A CHANCE IT COULD START
BRIEFLY AS RAIN IN THE NORTH BUT WOULD EXPECT WITH EVAPORATIONAL
COOLING IT WOULD QUICKLY CHANGE TO SNOW.  THICKNESSES AND 8H TEMPS
INCREASE AS THE DAY GOES ON AND THE PRECIP MAY THEN CHANGE TO RAIN
ACROSS THE WHOLE AREA.  EXPECT PRECIP AREA TO CONTINUE TO SHIFT
NORTHEAST AS THE DAY GOES ON WITH THE DEEPEST RH.  PRECIP MAY BE
DONE IN THE SOUTH BEFORE NOON AND AT TUL AND FSM EARLY IN THE
AFTERNOON. AFTER THE MAIN PRECIP SHIFTS AWAY THERE COULD STILL BE
SOME DRIZZLE.

ALL IN ALL EXPECT SNOW AMOUNTS TO BE LIMITED BY MARGINAL AIR
TEMPERATURES AND A RELATIVELY WARM GROUND.  GENERAL WENT WITH AN
INCH OF TWO IN THE NORTH.  WILL ISSUE A WINTER ADVISORY IN THE NORTH
WHERE I THINK IT HAS THE BEST CHANCE FOR ACCUMULATIONS.

TEMPS TODAY ARE A PROBLEM AS WELL.  MY GOING HIGHS ARE NOT MUCH
DIFFERENT THAN THE CURRENT TEMPERATURES.  BUT LIKE SAID BEFORE
EXPECT THEM TO WET BULB ONCE THE PRECIP STARTS AND THEY WILL NOT
RISE MUCH DURING THE DAY WITH THE PRECIP IN THE AREA.

THE NEXT SHORTWAVE WILL PUSH THROUGH IN THE NORTHERN BRANCH OF THE
JET STREAM OVERNIGHT BRINGING A COOL FRONT WITH IT.  WINDS WILL
SHIFT TO THE NORTHWEST.  HOWEVER...WITH PLENTY OF SUNSHINE AND
REALLY NO COLD AIR TO WORK WITH TEMPS MONDAY WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY
WARMER THAN TODAY.

THE WARMING TREND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK.  THE
NEXT CHANCE OF PRECIP AFTER THIS EVENING WILL BE THURSDAY AS THE
UPPER PATTERN SHIFTS TOWARD TROUGHINESS IN THE SOUTHWEST U.S. AND
NEW WAVES WILL LIKELY MOVE NORTHEAST AND TAP MOISTURE COMING ON
DEVELOPING SOUTH WINDS.

TUL  38  27  50  31 /  90  20   5   5
FSM  38  29  50  27 /  80  20   5   0
MLC  40  29  53  31 /  70  10   0   0
BVO  37  26  48  26 / 100  40   5  10
FYV  36  26  44  25 /  90  30   5   5
BYV  36  26  43  23 /  90  40   5  10
MIO  36  26  44  25 /  90  50   5  10
MKO  38  28  50  30 /  80  20   5   0
F10  39  28  51  31 /  70  10   5   0
HHW  43  33  55  31 /  60  10   0   0

FORECAST ID= 17
.TSA...
AR...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR TODAY FOR ZONES ARZ001>002...
ARZ010>011...ARZ019>020...ARZ029.

OK...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR TODAY FOR ZONES OKZ054>070...OKZ072.

ABBAS
Hazardous weather outlook, Feb 8, 6:00 AM CST, 22 hours 30 minutes before
ARZ001-002-010-011-019-020-029-OKZ049-053>076-091200-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
600 AM CST SAT FEB 8 2003

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

.DAY ONE...TODAY

DISCUSSION...
NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED.  SLIGHTLY WARMER TEMPERATURES ARE
EXPECTED TODAY AS HIGH PRESSURE CONTINUES TO SHIFT EAST OF THE
AREA.  CLOUDS WILL BEGIN TO INCREASE TONIGHT WITH A CHANCE OF LIGHT
SNOW AFTER MIDNIGHT.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY
A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE INTO THE SOUTHERN PLAINS SUNDAY
MORNING WITH AREAS OF LIGHT SNOW DEVELOPING OVER NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA
AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.  ONE TO TWO INCHES OF SNOW ACCUMULATION
WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS FAR NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST
ARKANSAS BY EARLY SUNDAY EVENING...PRIMARILY NORTH OF A FAYETTEVILLE
...BARTLESVILLE LINE.  A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MAY BE ISSUED FOR
THESE AREAS LATER TODAY OR TONIGHT.

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

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

7 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Benton

When
February 9, 4:30 AM CST to 1:00 PM 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
February 9, 4:30 AM CST to 1:00 PM CST
Where
Carroll forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.341, -93.538 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Crawford

When
February 9, 4:30 AM CST to 1:00 PM CST
Where
Crawford forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Heavy Snow, Franklin

When
February 9, 4:30 AM CST to 1:00 PM CST
Where
Franklin forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Heavy Snow, Madison

When
February 9, 4:30 AM CST to 1:00 PM CST
Where
Madison forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.011, -93.725 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Sebastian

When
February 9, 4:30 AM CST to 1:00 PM CST
Where
Sebastian forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Heavy Snow, Washington

When
February 9, 4:30 AM CST to 1:00 PM 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

More

Every storm in Arkansas in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Arkansas, February 2003

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: 5343001, 5343002, 5343003, 5343004, 5343005, 5343006, 5343007.