The climate of Arkansas “is mild, healthful, and very favorable for agricultural and other pursuits”. Most residents of the State greet snow as an infrequent but welcome visitor. In the mountains, of course, it falls more often than elsewhere, and lies longer on the ground, but the average annual depth over a 40-year period for even the Ozark Mountain section is only 10.4 inches. The yearly fall for the State is 5.6 inches. At the Ozark towns of Harrison and Winslow the figure is 14.9 inches. Icy streets are seldom seen in Little Rock, where the average winter temperature is 44° F.
Warm, bright days are common even in December and January. The spring is long and genial, and hot weather usually does not begin until June. Temperatures of 100° or more are reported in some southern counties nearly every summer, but mountain dwellers keep blankets handy the year around, for nights in the highlands are almost invariably cool. Summers extend through September, and the first killing frost does not ordinarily come until late October or November.
The average annual temperature of the State has been 61.4° F. Together with a long growing season, ranging from extremes of 176 days in the northwestern hills to 241 days in the southern lowlands and averaging 211 days, Arkansas receives an abundance of rain. The average fall for the State is 48.25 inches. This is far higher than the national figure of 34 inches, and is exceeded by only 7 States, all of them in the Southeast.
Most of the rain occurs during the winter and spring months, but even in late summer droughts are rare and usually local. During the warm season more rain falls in the lowlands than in the mountains, but the situation is reversed in winter. The explanation lies in the fact that the prevailing winds in summer are from the south and southwest, and in winter they are from the north or northwest. Humidity ranges from 55-60 per cent in the eastern two-thirds of the State to 50-55 per cent in the western third. In Little Rock the average relative humidity at 7 a.m. is 80; by noon it drops to 57, and by 7 p.m. it rises to 62.
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