An inch of snow had fallen on northern Benton County in the Bella Vista area by 6 a.m. on Sunday (Jan. 5), blanketing the ground and coating roads.
In Washington County, the thermometer registered above 35 degrees at about 4 a.m. but had plunged to 25 degrees by 6:30 a.m., with snow falling in Fayetteville and surrounding areas.
Joe Pennington, 5NEWS meteorologist, said temperatures were expected to drop into the teens across Northwest Arkansas by mid morning, causing roads to be slick.
In the River Valley, flurries had begun to fall by about 6:45 a.m., with temperatures slightly above freezing.
Across the region, an extreme cold front was expected to blast the area later Sunday, with high temperatures only anticipated to be in the teens by the afternoon, Pennington said.
By Monday morning (Jan. 6), the wind-chill factor across the region will make the temperature feel like minus-20 degrees in many places, he said.
By 7 a.m. on Sunday (Jan. 5), winds of up to 20 mph drove the wind-chill factor down to about 0 degrees at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, Pennington said.
Extreme winter weather across the nation led to early morning flight cancellations from XNA, the airport in Benton County. An American Airlines flight from XNA to Chicago O'Hare International Airport, and a United Airlines flight to Denver, had been canceled by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to airport officials. The airport encouraged passengers to check with their airlines for current flight information.
