Arkansas braces for snow and ice

Storm chaser Mike Scantlin reported live as snow began falling in Little Rock on Jan. 9, with a lot more expected.

Transcript

00:00Storm chaser Mike Scanlon is in Little Rock, AR, an area that's already on alert for this round of

00:05wintry weather. Now Mike, last time we checked in with you not a lot was going on. It looks like

00:09things have changed a little bit there. That's right, about 30 minutes ago we started getting

00:17these giant flakes and it's kind of come in and out of being those giant flakes, really sparse

00:22but really huge clumps of snow, and now we've got kind of smaller flakes with some snow pellets

00:27mixed in here. Already about an inch accumulated here on the grass and you can already see some

00:32trouble here. This is interstate 630 and interstate 30 here just on the southeast side of downtown

00:38Little Rock here. Already seeing some some trouble here. I saw a transport truck or two having

00:42trouble and a state trooper kind of guiding them up the hill here, but you know this is

00:48just the beginning and you know it's all downhill from here.

00:51You know that you are about a little southeast of downtown Little Rock. Can you just describe

00:58kind of what you're seeing there on the roadways? It doesn't look like there are a lot of people

01:00out and about right now. Are people heeding these warnings out ahead of the accumulating snowfall?

01:09There definitely aren't as many people out and about right now in town as there were earlier

01:13today. You know this morning it seemed kind of like a mad scramble to get out and about

01:18this morning. It seemed kind of like a mad scramble for everyone to get their last minute

01:22preparations in. A lot of people waiting to the last minute to see if the forecast was going to

01:27verify in these areas and you know as as radar shows this big mass of snow and sleet approaching

01:33I guess everyone is kind of taken back a little bit from that and the roads have quieted down

01:38quite a bit here. People going home early. A lot of places closing early. As soon as the

01:42flights started flying I was able to get a sandwich today. I was able to get lunch right

01:47before the sandwich shop closed and it seems like everything's closing down and everyone's headed

01:51home early before the roads get too bad. Right now just wet here on most of the roads and on

01:56the highways but your bridges and overpasses are going to be treacherous and it's only going to go

02:01downhill from here. Little Rock is not a flat area. If you haven't been to central Arkansas

02:06we're just on the outside of the Ozark Mountains here so there's not a lot of flat terrain in this

02:11city here in the town so there are going to be some major issues tonight as things go downhill

02:17as the temperatures get colder and as the snow continues to fall heavily this afternoon into

02:22the overnight hours. Quickly just the last thing I want to touch on with you. The reason this is

02:28such a big deal for this area is partially because of the snow totals that we're looking

02:32at but just explain for people why this is going to have such a big impact.

02:35Well you know going you have to go back 41 years to see the last time that they got more than 6.4

02:45inches of snow in a 24-hour period. It happens it's just not very often so this is a significant

02:50amount of snow to fall in a very short period of time especially in this area. Yeah and you know

02:56conditions only going to get worse. Thankfully you were able to get something to eat. We

03:01appreciate you being out there. Please stay safe. Try to stay warm. We'll check back in with you Mike.