Yesterday, I saw the first clouds I had seen in the local sky for almost a week. In the morning, there were enough clouds to briefly darken the sky so that the local temperature was considerably cooler. The shot below was taken on a much different type of day in July about 4 years ago. When this shot was taken, Pulaski County was getting rainfall almost every other day.
Westward view from close to the summit of Pinnacle Mountain
Even in the shot, you can see some damage from fire however. The amount of clouds in the sky do help a lot since they will block some the the direct light especially in the middle summer months. For the past two days, Little Rock, has been blessed with clouds which has helped to keep our maximum temperature down below 100 degrees.
The long term forecast is showing some possible relief by the end of next week when we might be getting some more localize rainfall.
One word of caution to those thinking about fireworks on the 4th. There is a burn ban on in Pulaski county for a reason. It’s about as dry right now as I can remember. The amount of localized hear generated by the explosion of the firecracker is more than enough to start a small fire. The past 3 days the winds have been blowing as much as 10 to 15 mph so if a small fire is started, then it might be very hard to put out. If you are going to enough localized fireworks this 4th of July, try to discharge them by a body of water, and preferably over a body of water, like the Arkansas River or one of the many lakes throughout the state.
If you are out hiking in Arkansas right now, make sure you are carrying plenty of water. I have been around many of the good hiking spots in the Newton county and Searcy County parts of Arkansas and really no local streams are running. You can not count on finding any water unless you are hiking in and around the White River, Buffalo River or Spring river. The rest of the streams in the state are not running and the only water you will find will be in pools. Richland creek for example would now be 98% dry and even some of the larger pools will start to dry up. If Arkansas doesn’t get any good rainfall in July, August and September, by the fall foliage period it’s very possible that Richland will be totally dry which I have only seen one other time since living in Arkansas since 1969.
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