Heavy rain brought flooding to the northeast beginning on 5/12/16 and 5/14/16.
Every event with a place to put it. 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.
Heavy rain brought flooding to the northeast beginning on 5/12/16 and 5/14/16.
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 May 11, 11:09 PM CST, 1 hour 6 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Little Rock AR 1209 AM CDT THU MAY 12 2016 .DISCUSSION... Updated to include the 06Z Aviation Discussion below... && .AVIATION... Clouds will increase overnight as a cold front approaches Arkansas from the northwest. Scattered showers/thunderstorms will be noted in the northwest half of the state tonight, and across the central/southern counties on Thursday. As chances for rain go up, there may be enough low clouds to create MVFR conditions in places, especially late tonight and Thursday morning. Otherwise, mainly VFR conditions will exist. Winds will be southwest at 5 to 10 mph overnight, shifting to the north/northwest on Thursday behind the front. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 254 PM CDT WED MAY 11 2016/ SHORT TERM...Tonight Through Friday Night Cloud cover remains across much of the state...which has suppressed afternoon temps a bit more than expected. Meanwhile...convection across the NW AR has begun to dwindle...although slight rain chances are still in the forecast. For this evening and into the overnight period...a cold front will begin pushing into the state from the Plains. Shower and thunderstorm activity will increase along and ahead of it overnight. Some storms may become strong to severe...but the timing of the front limits that potential. The front will push through the state on Thursday...with precip chances exiting to the southeast. A drier and less humid day will follow on Friday before unsettled weather returns in the long term. LONG TERM...Saturday Through Tuesday Night Medium range models continue to advertise what could be a rather unsettled period with several rounds of showers and thunderstorms and potentially heavy rain. Models are in decent agreement in the synoptic scale with the usual timing differences in the individual features. As such, a blend of model solutions is preferred. Period initiates upper ridging over the Great Basin with subsequent downstream troffing. Of more importance for us will be a surface low that will be moving through the northeast quadrant of the country. This feature drag a cold front through the region that will stall to the south of the state saturday. Front will begin to lift back to the north and basically just waffle around the region through the remainder of the period. Meanwhile, a new pacific trough will come on shore. Pieces of energy will kick out of the trough, interact with the front and an increasing moist air mass and result in shower and thunderstorm development. After a dry Saturday, rain chances return Sunday and especially Monday as a wave develops on the aforementioned front. This wave will finally push the front through very late in the period but not before several more inches of rain could fall. && .LZK Watches/Warnings/Advisories...NONE. && Aviation...46
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR 855 PM CDT WED MAY 11 2016 ARZ003>007-012>016-021>025-030>034-037>047-052>057-062>069-121000- BOONE-MARION-BAXTER-FULTON-SHARP-NEWTON-SEARCY-STONE-IZARD- INDEPENDENCE-JOHNSON-POPE-VAN BUREN-CLEBURNE-JACKSON-LOGAN-CONWAY- FAULKNER-WHITE-WOODRUFF-SCOTT-YELL-PERRY-POLK-MONTGOMERY-GARLAND- SALINE-PULASKI-LONOKE-PRAIRIE-MONROE-PIKE-CLARK-HOT SPRING-GRANT- JEFFERSON-ARKANSAS-DALLAS-CLEVELAND-LINCOLN-DESHA-OUACHITA- CALHOUN-BRADLEY-DREW- 855 PM CDT WED MAY 11 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR A LARGE PART OF ARKANSAS. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP IN THE NORTHWEST HALF OF ARKANSAS OVERNIGHT. THIS WILL HAPPEN AS A COLD FRONT APPROACHES FROM THE PLAINS. ISOLATED STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE...WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS THE MAIN CONCERNS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY THE COLD FRONT WILL MOVE SOUTHEAST THROUGH THE STATE ON THURSDAY. HIT AND MISS THUNDERSTORMS ARE IN THE FORECAST...WITH AN ISOLATED SEVERE STORM POSSIBLE. DRIER AND CALMER CONDITIONS WILL BE NOTED BEHIND THE FRONT THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH MUCH OF THE WEEKEND. A NEW STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE INTO THE REGION EARLY NEXT WEEK...WITH CHANCES FOR PRECIPITATION INCREASING. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED ACROSS THE NORTHWEST HALF OF ARKANSAS LATE TONIGHT. && VISIT NWS LITTLE ROCK ON THE WEB. GO TO HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/LZK. 62/46
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Heavy rain led to flooding during mid May in Augusta on the White River.
Heavy rain at during mid May led to flooding at Patterson on the Cache River.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Arkansas in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in Arkansas, May 2016
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: 638948, 638949.