WATCH: Historic winter storm hits Garland County

GALLERIES: Images from the historic snowfall on Sunday and Monday.

Rachel Head walks her dog, Gilbert, along a snowy Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs National Park on Monday. - Photo by Cassidy Kendall of The Sentinel-Record
Rachel Head walks her dog, Gilbert, along a snowy Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs National Park on Monday. - Photo by Cassidy Kendall of The Sentinel-Record

A thick blanket of dry, powdery snow that began falling early Monday and continued into the afternoon exceeded forecasters' predictions for central Arkansas.

"Most people's opinion would be we saw the snow overperform," Jeff Hood, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's North Little Rock office, said Monday. "Hot Springs, Little Rock and Conway were on the edge from west to east across the state along the axis of where we thought some of the heavier totals and wider totals would set up. Most people would probably think it was more than what most forecasts anticipated.

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"Here in central Arkansas we've had several reports in the 6- to 8-inch range and even a few 9-and-10-inch reports locally."

Garland County offices were closed for Monday's Presidents Day holiday. County Judge Darryl Mahoney said it may be several days before county offices and services are restored to full service. The offices will be closed again today.

"I'm not real hopeful about having full services until maybe Friday or next week," he said Monday. "We'll wait and see this afternoon what kind of progress gets made on our roadways and see if we can open any of the offices at all (today). I'm sure they'll be a few that can get in. Maybe elected officials, department heads can get in to at least man the phones and carry on some form of business. We'll make that call later (Monday) or early (today)."

Mahoney said the snow is likely to affect this week's trash collection schedule. Town and Country Sanitation Inc. was awarded the county's sanitation collection contract in 2019. In January 2020, it became responsible for weekly collection of more than 20,000 residential and commercial carts in the unincorporated area of the county.

"It will be very difficult for some people to even get their can out," Mahoney said. "But if you can get it out on your normal day, and if they can safely pick it up, they will. Otherwise we're going to have to come back and catch up at some point.

"Those trash trucks are no different than anything else on snow and ice. They don't get around well. For the public's safety, I hate to put a 30,000-pound truck out there that's sliding around. If you've got your trash can out by the road, and we don't get it this week then they'll have to catch it on an odd day next week. Then they'll have to come back on your normal day."

Monday wasn't a holiday for the city of Hot Springs, but the snow shut down most of its offices. Services were limited to police, fire and utilities. Sanitation services were paused.

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The city of Hot Springs offices will be closed again today. Solid Waste residential routes will not run, and a decision regarding Intracity Transit will be made this morning.

Public Works Street Division crews will continue to treat the roads throughout the day and night, the city said in a news release.

The Hot Springs fire and police departments will remain open, as well as the water and wastewater treatment plants. The 24-hour emergency on-call number for water and sewer problems is 501-321-6200.

Today's regularly scheduled meeting of the Hot Springs Board of Directors was postponed until 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23, at City Hall. The agenda meeting will be held prior to the meeting at 5:30 p.m., instead of 4 p.m., followed by a work session with Crews & Associates concerning a water bond refinancing opportunity.

Low temperatures Monday night in Garland County were near zero degrees Fahrenheit. Hood said the dry and powdery snow is a function of the historically low temperatures. Amounts in the 6-to-8-inch range had less than five-tenths of an inch of water, he said.

"Generally speaking, when you get to those more extreme colder temperatures there's very little moisture available in the atmosphere," Hood said. "The closer you get to freezing or a warmer temperature, there's more availability or more potential for abundant moisture to be in place.

"In this case, instead of being in Arkansas, it's like we're in a northern Plains or upper Midwest situation and we're getting snow and it's real dry and powdery this go around."

The Hot Springs Fire Department requested nonessential workers avoid travel. The Hot Springs Police Department said most people heeded the warning. Roadways weren't heavily trafficked, but the police department reported snow had stranded several motorists on Central and Grand avenues and Higdon Ferry Road.

Bo Robertson, the county's director of emergency management, said the Garland County Sheriff's Department had to provide transportation for dispatchers at the county's 911 Communications Center.

"If you don't have the right kind of vehicle, you're not going to be able to get around," he said. "A lot of smaller cars are not going to do very well in this deep snow. It's been so cold, none of it's going to go anywhere. If you have a sled and the ability to enjoy it, you're going to get your fill of it this week."

County Road Commissioner Tony Breshears said numerous vehicles were stranded in the snow Monday when county road crews ventured out to blade and sand some of the more than 900 miles of county-maintained roads.

"There is quite a few people out trying to drive in this," he said. "There's a lot of people in the ditches."

Hood said today's temperatures were expected to rebound slightly, with highs in the 20s, but another round of snow is forecast to begin Tuesday night.

"It's going to be a little bit warmer, with highs in the teens and 20s and lows in the single digits and teens," he said. "It does look like from a precipitation perspective it could be very similar as far as widespread snowfall amounts maybe in the 4-to-8-inch range. Some places, southern Arkansas particularly, could be looking at sleet and snow rather than just entirely snow."

Dave Parker, public information officer for the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said the snow's effect on travel has been statewide, but relatively few accidents had been reported on state and federal highways.

"People seem to have heeded the warning," he said. "The holiday helps out. We've had a relatively low number of accidents. I think people understand this is not a typical Arkansas storm that hits one or two pockets of the state. We're all dealing with the same animal. Bitter cold, a lot of snow and blowing snow in some cases.

"We had some whiteout conditions (Monday morning). This is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. We know we've got some more coming in as early as (tonight)."

The severity of the cold temperatures made Monday's storm unusual for the southern latitudes of the country, Hood said.

"For someone who's lived or known a location in Arkansas for their whole lives, if they're 30-something years old or they're 80-something years old, they've seen snowfall like this before," Hood said. "What makes this event historic, or rare, is the extent of not only the wintry precipitation encompassing much of the southern Plains and all the way down to the Gulf Coast, but the extreme cold that goes along with it.

"We're talking about cold that hasn't been seen in many areas for decades. It's occurred at these recording stations or weather observation sites that we've maintained for 100 to 150 years, but it hasn't occurred many times in the past. It's extraordinary. Depending on your scope or viewpoint of it, to many it will be historic for sure."

Motorists ease along in the 4000 block of Central Avenue during a snowstorm Monday morning. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record
Motorists ease along in the 4000 block of Central Avenue during a snowstorm Monday morning. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record
Danny Matz walks his dog, Onyx, near Burchwood Bay Road during a heavy snowfall on Monday. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record
Danny Matz walks his dog, Onyx, near Burchwood Bay Road during a heavy snowfall on Monday. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record

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