Flood — White, Arkansas

2008-03-19 to 2008-03-28 · near Judsonia, White, Arkansas

Event narrative

Flooding occurred on the Little Red River at Judsonia due to heavy rain. The river briefly went below flood stage on March 20th through the 22nd, but rose back above flood stage on the morning of the 22nd. Levees protecting the Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge were overtopped. Numerous county roads were flooded and Arkansas Highway 36 was flooded just east of West Point. Some homes and recreational cabins and trailers were flooded near West Point. It is hard to delineate between the Little Red River flooding and backwater effects from the more substantial White River flooding downstream. While the crest at Judsonia was within minor flood criteria, the impacts were more than minor only a couple of miles downstream. There were some winter wheat losses in the area and pastures were flooded for a prolonged period of time.

Wider weather episode

Very heavy rain began developing late on the 17th in northern and western Arkansas, and continued on the 18th and early on the 19th as a powerful storm system approached from Texas. The system dredged copious moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and sent it toward Arkansas with a deep southerly wind flow. Well above normal precipitable water was noted, which enhanced rainfall efficiency across the region.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.2510, -91.6181)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 88882. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.