KUAR: Severe Drought Spreads Throughout Arkansas’s Southern Half

See Chris Hickey’s story about the spreading and intensifying drought in Arkansas: http://bit.ly/1LtMIkt

Lessons learned about drought and livestock

The drought of 2011-2012 in Arkansas taught cattle producers some hard lessons. Some of what we’ve learned is contained in the publication “Drought Management and Recovery for Livestock Systems.”

Download it at http://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/mp530.pdf, or ask your county extension office about it.

Are you ready for wildfires?

The Cooperative Extension Service has an array of fact sheets to help homeowners take steps to protect their property in event of a disaster. Download this wildfire sheet at http://bit.ly/1Rh9NdK.

Fire weather in Arkansas

The National Weather Service at Little Rock has a fire weather watch in effect for a large portion of Arkansas.

Below maps are from the Arkansas Forestry Commission’s www.arkfireinfo.org.

Extreme wildlfire danger in Arkansas on Saturday, Oct. 17.

Burn bans in effect on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015.

After the ice storm

Winter damaged tree.

LITTLE ROCK – With the potential for a significant layer of ice this weekend, homeowners need to be examining their properties carefully to help prevent damage from falling trees or limbs, said Tamara Walkingstick, associate director of the Arkansas Forest Research Center and an extension forester for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

The state’s major snowstorm last Christmas may also have caused hidden damage, bending or breaking the wood fiber under the bark, but not enough to prevent the branch from continuing to grow.

“The damage is still there and the extra weight of ice or snow can cause the total failure of the branch,” she said. “One way to tell is see if the branch is it bending more than it should, or if it appears to be pointing more toward the ground than other branches.

“If one of these branches is over someone’s home and it’s small enough for them to prune or remove safely, the homeowner might consider doing so to halt the chance of any damage,” Walkingstick said. READ MORE

 

 

http://www.arnatural.org/forestry/Ice_Damage/picking_up_after_the_storm.htm

Rain floods fields, prompts highway closure

NW Arkansas’s snow may be higher profile, but water is shaping its own drama in the Arkansas Delta. As Extension Rice Agronomist Jarrod Hardke said, “Last year it was a desert, and this year, you need a boat.”

Rising water in eastern Arkansas on Friday prompted flood warnings, a highway closure and submerged corn, rice and soybeans in two counties.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department closed a section of Arkansas 226 in Craighead County on Friday afternoon due to high water.

The National Weather Service at Memphis, Tenn., issued a flood warning for the St. Francis River at Lake City, east of Jonesboro. A flood watch was posted much of eastern Arkansas, northern Mississippi, southeastern Missouri and western Tennessee until 7 p.m. Friday. 

In Phillips County, 4-5 inches fell in the last 24 hours, said Robert Goodson, county extension agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

“We will have standing water in low areas,” he said. Corn and soybeans were submerged Friday afternoon – “the tallest corn was in the 6-8 inch range, with soybeans just a couple of inches tall and maybe one leaf at best.”

One year later, outlook is brighter

KARK-TV’s Josh Berry visited Pope County, Ark., a place that had become the face of severe drought for much of the world’s media last year. A year later, a cool, wet spring, has returned hope to the area’s cattle industry. See the story at: http://arkansasmatters.com/fulltext?nxd_id=659202

It’s May. It’s Arkansas. It’s snowing.

Though some folks remember flakes falling in Fayetteville, Plumerville and Eros, Ark., in May 1980, there’s no official National Weather Service record of it. Today’s snow is a record. Arkansas has never seen snow in May. (At least since the NWS has been keeping records.)

SNOW HOG — Razorback statue decked in snow the morning of Friday, May 3, 2013, in Madison County, Arkansas. . It’s the first recorded May snow in Arkansas. (U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture photo by Darrin Henderson)

SPRING GARDEN — Washington County, Ark., Extension Agent Jane Maginot awoke to see snow covering her vegetable garden on May 3, 2013. It’s the first recorded May snow in Arkansas. (U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture photo by Jane Maginot)

Drought continues its retreat

U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday, May 2.

Drought continues to recede in Arkansas as the moderate drought designation drops completely from counties north of the Arkansas River. Spots of moderate drought are stubbornly clinging to areas in the southwestern part of the state.

The good news, according to the Climate Prediction Center, is that SW Arkansas is projected to see much improvement through the end of July. See today’s outlook at:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/seasonal_drought.pdf

Meanwhile, some folks in northwest Arkansas will be scanning the May skies for snowflakes.

 

Drought in Pope Co. – then and now

Pope County Extension Staff Chair Phil Sims took KTHV’s Sarah Fortner on a visit to some of the places most hard-hit by last year’s drought. One of them was a bermudagrass pasture in Hector, Ark., that exceptional drought had turned into a moonscape:

See the story at: http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=262777