![]() ![]() This summer's average temperature of 77.6 degrees in Arkansas made it the 23rd-coolest on record dating to when meteorologists began jotting down daily temperatures and other weather observations in 1895. "They seem to come about every eight years."Ĭool summers also are considered an indicator of colder winters - to a point. "It's been a fairly long time since we've had a catastrophic ice storm," Gilmore said. In February 2009, another ice storm paralyzed much of northern Arkansas where electricity wasn't restored to some residents until three weeks later. "We have low to moderate confidence Arkansas will see some ice this winter."Ĭentral Arkansas was devastated by up to 3 inches of ice in late December 2000, which knocked out power to 500,000 residents. "One of the players we're looking at for the state is ice," Smerbeck said. "You should begin seeing the coldest air blowing in from Canada to Arkansas in January and February. "That's the trip card," said Bob Smerbeck, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather at the Penn State meteorology and atmospheric science department. If Arctic air from Canada surges into the state, as some expect, the combination of the moisture and frigid air is apt to produce more snow or ice than usual. "The odds are against it."įorecasters say moisture from the Gulf of Mexico should be more prominent in Arkansas this winter. "Statistically speaking, we're leaning toward not as mild of a winter as we've seen," said meteorologist Willie Gilmore of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock. The average temperature for Arkansas' winter for the past century is 41.3 degrees. In fact, two consecutive winters with such temperatures have occurred in the state only 17 times in the past 122 years, records show. National Weather Service statistics show it would be unprecedented for the state to have three consecutive winters with temperatures at least 3 degrees above average. We look forward to the reading next year.While the past two winters ranked among Arkansas' top 10 warmest ever, don't expect another mild winter when December rolls around, weather forecasters say. While her beloved tree is gone, she tells us she can hike into the mountains to gather fruit until her new tree bears fruit. This is Melissa’s 10th year reading the seeds. At the time, I was mostly excited to be getting some snow days from school, but my grandfather’s ominous look sobered my childish dreams of lazing around, and we began furiously canning and preparing the freezers for what was coming. In 1985, when I was only 5 years old, it happened again. One story happened in 1962, where the seeds read all spoons and the precipitation was almost constant and continued until May of 1963. I’ve heard of similar stories from my grandfather. I have never seen this in all of my years. This year’s seeds (2018) revealed all spoons and only 2 forks. This morning I gathered as many as I could. I left my tree and allowed the dead limbs to ripen the fruit. The next morning during the intermittent rain, I saw my beloved tree laying in the mud and its unripe fruits scattered. That evening, the soggy ground released the roots and down she came. Because the tree was too large to shake them down, I decided to wait. After the storm (the tree was still standing), I looked at the fruit and saw they were peachy orange in color, with ripe ones at the top. Most of the persimmons remained green right as the storm hit. They came early this year, so I should have taken the hint that something large was coming, but between family life and other things, I got pretty busy. ![]() ![]() Prior to the storm, I kept an eye on my persimmon tree watching the fruit. We did have flooding inside our home! This was a constant battle for two days, but we’re nice and dry now! We were luckier than most. We lost power for a little while but were lucky. This week, she shared with us her harrowing story of salvaging the fruits and getting a persimmon seed forecast for us: The Persimmon Lady’s Story from Hurricane Florence Melissa’s family and her persimmon tree were right in its path. This year was a bit of a challenge, thanks to Hurricane Florence, which made landfall in North Carolina on September 14. Around this time each year, we check in with Melissa Bunker of North Carolina, a.k.a., “ The Persimmon Lady,” who sends us her winter predictions based on seeds she opens from the persimmon fruit grown on her tree in central North Carolina. ![]()
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