ARKANSAS, USA — With winter right around the corner, the National Weather Service (NWS) has altered the criteria for issuing a winter storm warning.
Winter storm watches and warnings are issued when heavy snow or significant ice is predicted— with the changes from the NWS, don't be surprised if you see more warnings and watches this upcoming winter.
The first big change will impact most of Arkansas, but not 5COUNTRY:
Up until now, most of the state needed a potential of four inches of snowfall to issue a warning or a watch. With the updated changes, 38 counties in Arkansas will only need three inches of snowfall and six counties will only need to reach two inches.
Tap HERE to see where snow is moving next with our interactive radar.
The second big change for Arkansas comes with the elimination of the 12 or 24-hour time considerations:
Before the rule changes, the NWS would only issue warnings or watches 12 or 24 hours before the actual winter event. Now, local offices have the power to make judgment calls at any point surrounding the event.
One factor that is not changing is the threshold for ice:
According to the NWS, the threshold for ice will remain at either a quarter-inch of ice or half an inch of sleet.
With these changes now in place for Arkansas, you'll likely see more warnings and watches this year which will ultimately give you more prep time.
Why is this happening?
The National Weather Service has offices across the country, centralized around population hubs, not necessarily states. The government agency has a goal to make watches and warnings a bit more uniform, depending on weather stats, not just where people live.
These are the new winter storm warning/watch criteria for snow for an upcoming snowstorm. You can see how it's more uniform depending on snow climatology:
This is the previous map. It's kind of a mess. Now the offices are much more uniform on how they forecast snow storms.
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