http://www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-products/emergency-weather-meteorological-services/articles/750097-ark-emergency-management-officials-gear-up-for-intense-winter-storm/
Emergency management officials on Tuesday geared up for the expected arrival Thursday of freezing rain, sleet and snow.
Weather forecasters suggested the wicked system will have a tough time matching the intensity of last January's ice storm, which caused nine deaths, knocked out power to 350,000 Arkansas homes and businesses, downed thousands of trees and left north Arkansas communities critically short of water.
However, this round is expected to bring 3-5 inches of freezing rain, sleet and snow and up to a half-inch of ice accumulation that could be heavy enough to drag down power lines.
"It's looking like it's going to be dicey somewhere," said meteorologist Kenneth Jackson with the National Weather Service office in Tulsa. "The exact zone is tough to nail down." Tuesday's bull's-eye was on Washington County, but the prediction was so far ahead of the storm that the most severe weather could actually occur 50 miles north or south of there, Jackson said.
Dave Maxwell, director of the state Department of Emergency Management, said forecasters gave conflicting reports about where the worst weather will whack Arkansas.
One forecast showed the 15-18 counties stretching across the northernmost part of the state would see ice accumulations of a quarter-inch to a half-inch, while another forecast suggested the freezing rain and ice would slip farther south and the state's northernmost counties would be blanketed with heavy snow, Maxwell said.
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