Drought spread into part of southeast Arkansas adjacent to the Mississippi River during July.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The episode as NWS LZK wrote it up.
Drought spread into part of southeast Arkansas adjacent to the Mississippi River during July.
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 Little Rock, AR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 10, 5:40 AM CST, 20 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR 640 AM CDT TUE JUL 10 2012 .AVIATION... COLD FRONT WILL CONTINUE TO SLOWLY MOVE SOUTH. IFR/LIFR FOG/CIGS ACROSS SOUTHERN ARKANSAS WILL CONTINUE FOR A FEW HOURS...BEFORE LIFTING TO VFR. HAVE INCLUDED VCSH/VCTS FOR THE LATE MORNING INTO THE AFTERNOON HOURS...AS CONVECTION WILL BE HIT AND MISS...AND NOT CONFIDENT ENOUGH TO INCLUDE A SPECIFIC TIME/PLACE. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 405 AM CDT TUE JUL 10 2012/ SHORT TERM...TODAY THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT DAYTIME CONVECTION ON MON QUICKLY DISSIPATED FOR THE MOST PART AFT SUNSET. A FEW SHRA/TSRA WERE NOTED OVR PARTS OF NRN AR EARLY THIS MRNG...VCNTY OF A WEAK FNTL BNDRY. MEANWHILE...AN UPR LVL SHEAR AXIS WAS SITUATED JUST TO THE E OF THE FA. THE AFOREMENTIONED FNTL BNDRY IS FCST TO MEANDER OVR THE AREA FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS. A SERIES OF IMPULSES WL TRACK ALONG THE FNT... PROVIDING A FOCUS FOR ADDITIONAL MAINLY DIURNAL CONVECTION. WL CONT TO PLACE HIGHEST POPS ACRS THE SERN HALF OF THE FA...WITH LESSER RAIN CHCS TO THE NW. PW VALUES ARE FCST TO RMN ABV 2 INCHES AHEAD OF THE FNT. COMBINED WITH LGT UPR LVL WIND FLOW...LOCALLY HVY DOWNPOURS WL BE POSSIBLE. ACTIVITY SHLD CONT TO BE MAINLY DIURNAL IN NATURE... SO WL INDC LOWER POPS IN THE OVERNIGHT PDS. TEMPS WL RMN NEAR SEASONAL NORMS THRU THE PD. LONG TERM...SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY COLD FRONT WILL STALL OUT ACROSS SOUTHERN ARKANSAS OR NORTHERN LOUISIANA FOR MUCH OF THE EXTENDED. SEVERAL IMPULSES WILL MOVE ALONG THE FRONT...WITH SMALL RAIN CHANCES CONTINUING INTO THE WEEKEND... ESPECIALLY ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST. TEMPERATURES WILL BEGIN AN WARMING TREND...AS UPPER HEIGHTS BEGIN TO INCREASE...WITH AFTERNOON HIGHS RETURNING TO THE LOWER TO MID 90S. && .LZK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && AVIATION...58
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR 500 AM CDT TUE JUL 10 2012 ARZ003>007-012>016-021>025-030>034-037>047-052>057-062>069-111000- ARKANSAS-BAXTER-BOONE-BRADLEY-CALHOUN-CLARK-CLEBURNE-CLEVELAND- CONWAY-DALLAS-DESHA-DREW-FAULKNER-FULTON-GARLAND-GRANT-HOT SPRING- INDEPENDENCE-IZARD-JACKSON-JEFFERSON-JOHNSON-LINCOLN-LOGAN-LONOKE- MARION-MONROE-MONTGOMERY-NEWTON-OUACHITA-PERRY-PIKE-POLK-POPE- PRAIRIE-PULASKI-SALINE-SCOTT-SEARCY-SHARP-STONE-VAN BUREN-WHITE- WOODRUFF-YELL- 500 AM CDT TUE JUL 10 2012 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR A LARGE PART OF ARKANSAS. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT AS A COLD FRONT SLOWLY MOVES THROUGH THE STATE TODAY...SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP. WHILE WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT ANTICIPATED...SOME STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE...WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL POSSIBLE. IN ADDITION...HEAVY RAINFALL IS POSSIBLE WITH ANY SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORM. EVEN WITH RAINFALL IN THE FORECAST...EXTREME WILDFIRE DANGER CONTINUES ACROSS THE NATURAL STATE...AND MOST COUNTIES HAVE BURN BANS IN PLACE. ANY FIRE THAT STARTS COULD SPREAD RAPIDLY AND QUICKLY GET OUT OF CONTROL. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY SHOWER AND THUNDERSTORM CHANCES WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE WORK WEEK...AS THE COLD FRONT SLOWLY MOVES THROUGH THE STATE AND INTERACTS WITH DISTURBANCES IN THE FLOW ALOFT. WHILE WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT ANTICIPATED...A FEW STRONG AND SEVERE STORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE. THE FRONT IS FORECAST TO STALL OUT JUST SOUTH OF THE AREA...WITH TEMPERATURES RETURNING TO NEAR NORMAL LEVELS. WHATEVER RAIN MATERIALIZES...IT WILL LIKELY HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON THE ONGOING DROUGHT. OUTDOOR BURNING OF ANY KIND IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. && VISIT NWS LITTLE ROCK ON THE WEB. GO TO HTTP://WEATHER.GOV AND CLICK ON CENTRAL ARKANSAS. 58
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR 520 AM CDT TUE JUL 10 2012 ARZ003>007-012>016-021>025-030>034-037>047-052>057-062>069-111200- ARKANSAS-BAXTER-BOONE-BRADLEY-CALHOUN-CLARK-CLEBURNE-CLEVELAND- CONWAY-DALLAS-DESHA-DREW-FAULKNER-FULTON-GARLAND-GRANT-HOT SPRING- INDEPENDENCE-IZARD-JACKSON-JEFFERSON-JOHNSON-LINCOLN-LOGAN-LONOKE- MARION-MONROE-MONTGOMERY-NEWTON-OUACHITA-PERRY-PIKE-POLK-POPE- PRAIRIE-PULASKI-SALINE-SCOTT-SEARCY-SHARP-STONE-VAN BUREN-WHITE- WOODRUFF-YELL- 520 AM CDT TUE JUL 10 2012 ...ARKANSAS REMAINS IN EXTREME WILDFIRE DANGER... A LONG STRETCH OF HOT TEMPERATURES...COMBINED WITH A LACK OF RAINFALL...HAS ARKANSAS IN AN EXTREME FIRE DANGER. RAIN CHANCES WILL BE IN THE FORECAST FOR MUCH OF THE WEEK...BUT RAINFALL AMOUNTS WILL NOT BE LARGE ENOUGH TO DAMPEN THE FIRE DANGER. MOST OF ARKANSAS IS EXPERIENCING A SEVERE DROUGHT...WITH EXTREME DROUGHT CONDITIONS IN A THIRD OF THE STATE. VEGETATION HAS LARGELY DRIED OUT DUE TO RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES AND LOW HUMIDITY LEVELS IN RECENT WEEKS. AS A RESULT...WILDFIRES HAVE BECOME MORE COMMON. OVER THE LAST MONTH A FEW HUNDRED FIRES HAVE STARTED AND BURNED SEVERAL THOUSAND ACRES OF LAND. THE ARKANSAS FORESTRY COMMISSION HAS THE ENTIRE STATE IN AN EXTREME FIRE DANGER...AND SEVENTY THREE OF SEVENTY FIVE COUNTIES ARE CURRENTLY UNDER BURN BANS. LITTLE CHANGE IN THE FIRE DANGER LEVEL IS ANTICIPATED IN THE NEAR FUTURE...EVEN WITH THE RAINFALL IN THE FORECAST. AS SUCH...OUTDOOR BURNING IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED IN ARKANSAS UNTIL WIDESPREAD SUBSTANTIAL RAIN FALLS. ANY UNCONTROLLED OR ACCIDENTAL FIRES COULD QUICKLY GROW OUT OF CONTROL GIVEN HOW DRY VEGETATION IS. 58
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
Severe drought developed over the western half of Desha County during the first part of July, and these conditions then persisted through the end of the month.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Arkansas in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Arkansas, July 2012
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: 388299.