LITTLE ROCK-Motorists were being warned about possibly treacherous driving conditions Friday as central Arkansas dug out from as much as 8 inches of snow and almost all of the state prepared for below-freezing temperatures.
Temperatures were expected to drop below freezing throughout the night Friday, said Emilie Nipper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
Traffic was moving on most Arkansas highways early in the day, but highway department workers were getting the roads ready for their anticipated refreezing. A spokesman for the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department said crews were out searching for wet spots on highways where drainage issues may have occurred to treat them with salt amid the falling temperatures.
"You can be driving along at interstate speeds and the highway looks dry, and then you'll just hit one of those spots where it looked like it just rained because there's water on the pavement," spokesman Danny Straessle said. "Those are the areas drivers need to watch out for
"We can think we got all of them, but inevitably there will be one we didn't know about until there's a wreck," he said. "So people should be extra careful as the temperatures drop."
Meteorologist Lance Pyle with the weather service in North Little Rock said 8 inches of snow was reported to have dropped just southeast of Cabot, about 25 miles northeast of Little Rock. Pyle said that Sherwood, about 12 miles north of Little Rock, also recorded 8 inches.
Nonessential state and city services in Little Rock ground to a halt as most government offices closed.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman and his staff didn't cancel their tour of a homeless veterans program in Little Rock. The Republican, who serves on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said his car got stuck while pulling into the parking lot.
"Luckily, there were some men there who were more than willing to help us get unstuck," Boozman said. "It was important to us to get there and see the operations at this program, which has an impressive reputation, and see what we can learn from them."