Hail Yes!!!

Check out these stones! Thanks to Victoria in Sherman, TX who picked up these huge hail stones about 20 minutes after then fell. Some melting had occurred, but it looks like they were close to baseball size. A few dents in the car, I'm sure. And she may see a dusting of snow by tomorrow morning.

No snow in Little Rock, but northwest Arkansas may see an inch or two. We will be near freezing Saturday night....great for that last hurrah in the fireplace.

South Arkansas may still see some severe weather this evening. Send me snow pictures if you get any.

Winter's not quite ready to leave

No photo tonight. Just a short update to watch the weather. There will be some severe weather and tornadoes tomorrow, especially to the south and east of Little Rock. Keep a close eye out. By Friday night and Saturday morning as the low moves thru central Arkansas rain will change to snow over the extreme northwest. Benton county could see up to 4 inches of heavy wet snow. Even Plano and Sherman may see a few flakes before it all ends. Look for lows in the 30s Saturday night. Perfect for one last fire and bowl of chili. Do let me know if you get severe weather or snow.

No Doubt about Redoubt

Alaska's Mount Redoubt finally erupted this week. The color code has now been lowered from Red to Orange. You've probably seen this link before, but here is the AVO website. Another great volcano site is the Oregon State Univ site that currently has photos of a huge underwater eruption.


As for local weather.... we've had a lot of cloudy skies and some rain. More is in the forecast and believe it or not Northwest Arkansas may see some snow late Friday night.

Spring arrived last week

Spring officially rolled in Friday morning, but we are lacking those warm, sunny Spring days. Thursday was cloudy with light rain almost all day...Friday was nice and sunny, but a little on the cool side. Saturday surprised us again with light rain most of the day....and this morning I awoke to more clouds. It looks like we will see a little more rain and thunderstorm activity in the week ahead with 60's and 40's later in the week.

And don't forget....Czar "John The Sarcastic" is having a birthday today!

I will also do my best to take some Spring photos this week.

Hawaii Weather

I just happened to be looking at weather in Hawaii this morning and I noticed it has been very windy, cool and rainy in Hawaii. You can bet that when it's cool in Honolulu, Hilo, and Kona, that it's cold at the top of the mountains. In fact, Maui's Haleakala mountain at 10,000 feet was below freezing this morning. On the big Island reporting stations on top of Mauna Kea at nearly 14,000 feet reported lows in the upper teens. Above is the Gemini telescope jointly operated by the US, UK, Canada, Australia and three South American countries. Gemini began operations in 1999. Below is the oldest telescope - the University of Hawaii's 2.2 meter telescope - opened in 1970.

Below are the Subaru telescope operated by the Japanese and the two Keck telescopes operated by Cal-Tech. Here's a link to the Mauna Kea Weather Center and the Visitors Center. Take some time to explore these sites. The have some great web cam loops.

As for out weather.....cloudy and damp. 70's and 50's expected in the week ahead.

Return to Winter

Surprise, surprise, surprise......80 degrees earlier in the week and this morning 32 degrees and light freezing rain and even some sleet. All in all it wasn't much of an event, but it was fascinating to see how the slightest change in elevation resulted in various amounts of ice. These photos are of Shinall Mountain in west Little Rock. These pictures were taken across the street from the Walmart on Chenal Parkway looking south at about 350 feet above sea level. Ice formed at about 600 feet. The higher the elevation the more the accumulation. The top of Shinall Mountain is at about 1000 feet at the location of the TV antennas. Spring promises to return soon.

Spring...then more Winter

This is what it looked like last year in early March when we had a couple of inches of wet snow. This season was the lightest snowfall in several years. I guess it's GLOBAL WARMING ..... I did NOT just write that! Yes, it is getting warmer...but we did not cause it.

We've had Spring-like weather the past few days, but another change is coming. Rain and thunderstorms are possible the first part of the week and then more cold weather. In fact North Arkansas could see some snow flakes Wednesday night and Thursday. I've been rather busy the past few weeks and have not done my best job of making this site interesting. We are getting into peak tornado season. I always enjoy the Weather Channel's Storm Stories. Later this month episode 3 will feature the January 2008 outbreak in several states, including Arkansas.

Spring Break begins for some on Friday. Heed the State Department warnings about travel to Mexico.

It wasn't much....but it was snow

We ended up with about a half inch of snow....and by this morning, despite being 25 degrees, much of it has evaporated. The daffodils would have looked more interesting growing out a a couple of inches of snow.

Northeast Arkansas picked up the most snow with a foot in parts of Mississippi County. The Memphis area also received several inches. One town in western Tennessee actually saw 18 inches. This maybe out last hurrah for snow this year. Now it's on to Spring and tornadoes.

On another sad note,,,,we've lost one of the greatest broadcasters of all time. Paul Harvey died at the age of 90. My father knew him well way back in the 1950's. He would occasionally travel to affiliate radio stations and do his broadcast from their studios. He did that at least twice from our family radio station KELD in El Dorado. He did a segment of his show talking about various residents of El Dorado which included a short comment on my father who was elected mayor of the town on a platform of running the city like a business. Fortunately I have the tape of that segment. I would post that clip if I knew how to. Maybe Kelly will let me know by email or something.