Name: Excessive Heat and Heat in Arkansas, August 18, 2024
Start: 2024-08-18T10:00
End: 2024-08-18T19:00
Location: Arkansas

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 3 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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 3

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 MEG wrote it up.

As a cold front approached the region, excessive moisture and heat pooled across parts of the Mid-South. Dewpoints surged into the mid-70s ahead of the slow-moving front resulting in heat indices between 105 and 114 degrees for southwestern portions of the Mid-South.

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 Memphis, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 17, 5:38 PM CST, 16 hours 22 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 17, 5:38 PM CST, 16 hours 22 minutes before

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The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 heat, 1 excessive heat. Local standard time, as filed.

Excessive Heat, Phillips

When: August 18, 10:00 AM CST to 7:00 PM CST
Where: Phillips forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS
Coordinates: 34.428, -90.848 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat indices in excess of 110 degrees.

Heat, Lee

When: August 18, 10:00 AM CST to 7:00 PM CST
Where: Lee forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS
Coordinates: 34.781, -90.782 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat indices in between 105 and 109 degrees.

Heat, St. Francis

When: August 18, 10:00 AM CST to 7:00 PM CST
Where: St. Francis forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS
Coordinates: 35.022, -90.748 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat indices in between 105 and 109 degrees.

What these are

Excessive Heat: Heat at or above the local excessive heat warning criteria, or heat that caused deaths.
Heat: Heat below excessive heat criteria that still caused deaths, injuries or significant impacts.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Arkansas in 2024 Every state in 2024 This day in weather history Warnings in Arkansas, August 2024

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: 1212392, 1212396, 1212398.