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