Weekly Forecast

The staple product of Arkansas Weather Report has long been a 7-Day forecast published once a week (usually on Sunday). This forecast is hand-made by meteorologist David Harrison and includes a detailed Forecast Discussion as seen below.

Forecast Discussion

Last Updated 01-11-26

The weather looks to be dry and seasonably cool this week thanks to several cold fronts that are forecast to swing across the region. Afternoon highs will start out in the 50s and low 60s during the first half of the workweek before dropping into the 40s on Thursday. These cooler temperatures will then persist through the weekend, and overnight lows could dip into the mid to upper 20s each night. Rain chances will be virtually nonexistent over the next seven days. Have a good week!

The period will start out with an amplified upper-level ridge positioned over much of the western CONUS and a cutoff low meandering across northern Mexico. This pattern will place Arkansas under persistent northwesterly flow through most of the period, and this will be the primary driver of our weather this week. High pressure at the surface will keep skies clear to start the workweek, and the ample sunshine will help push temperatures into the mid 50s by Monday afternoon. Tuesday and Wednesday will be similarly mild with afternoon highs in the upper 50s or low 60s, and overnight lows will only fall into the upper 30s or low 40s.

An amplified upper-level trough is forecast to dive south into the Mississippi Valley on Wednesday, and this will drag a strong cold front across the region sometime Wednesday afternoon or evening. Considerable cold air advection will develop behind the frontal passage Wednesday night, and this will usher a deep arctic air mass into Arkansas by Thursday morning. Temperatures are forecast to dip into the low to mid 20s by sunrise Thursday, and afternoon temperatures will only warm into the 40s. Temperatures will rebound a bit into the 50s on Friday before another cold front swings across the state on Saturday. Unfortunately, moisture will be extremely limited throughout the period, and these frontal passages will probably only produce some increased cloud cover. Any precipitation that does manage to develop will likely be light and not very helpful for our developing drought conditions. Have a good week!

Acknowledgements: This forecast was produced using surface and upper-air observations, radar and satellite observations, and numerical weather prediction models provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service.