We’ve been eyeing a return of winter-like temperatures for over a week, and now they are right around the corner. We are tracking a three-day stretch of frosty mornings.

The National Weather Service has issued cold weather alerts for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. There is a freeze warning for northern Arkansas Monday morning, a freeze watch for the northern two-thirds of the state Tuesday morning, and another freeze watch for northeast Arkansas Wednesday morning. Click through the slides below to see the alerts for each day.

The reason there are freeze watches instead of freeze warnings on Tuesday/Wednesday mornings is that the National Weather Service won’t issue warnings that far in advance. The freeze watches will likely change to freeze warnings within 12 hours of them going into effect.

It looks like the coldest of the three mornings will be Tuesday morning. Click through the slides below to see the low temperature forecast for each morning.

Is this late for a freeze?

No. It’s actually close to when we normally see our last freeze in Little Rock. The average last freeze for Little Rock is Saint Patrick’s Day. That’s this Friday. So, it’s early only be a few days. Most of Arkansas has its last freeze in late March and early April. So, it is considerably early for some places, if it is indeed the last freeze.

But, this will not be our last freeze. Forecast models are showing another cold snap impacting Arkansas this weekend.

Stay warm Arkansas!- Meteorologist Alex Libby