Heavy rainfall brought nearly 5 inches of rain to Little Rock, Arkansas, on Thursday, a rare August event considering that the storms weren’t tropical in nature.
Newsweek reached out to the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Little Rock by phone for comment on Friday.
Why It Matters
The heavy rain follows a cold front that ushered in below-average temperatures across the Central United States earlier this week, including in Arkansas. The downpours prompted flash flood warnings to be issued across the region.
Some storms also were accompanied by strong winds and hail.
What to Know
On Thursday, the NWS office in Little Rock posted rainfall totals for Arkansas’ capital showing that Little Rock received 4.99 inches of rain.
“Little Rock Adams Field has received 4.99 inches of rain today,” the post said. “This blows away the daily record and ends up in second place ever for the month of August.”
Little Rock Adams Field has received 4.99 inches of rain today. This blows away the daily record and ends up in second place ever for the month of August. #arwx pic.twitter.com/FWoJdH8aQn
— NWS Little Rock (@NWSLittleRock) August 29, 2025
The previous daily rainfall record for August 28 was 1.91 inches in 1978.
Yakoubian also commented on the rainfall in a post on X.
“Rare! This much rain in August NOT associated with a tropical system does not happen often,” he posted. “Little Rock and other areas shattered daily rain records.”
Other areas that saw heavy rainfall included Petit Jean with 8.35 inches, Sherwood with 6.5 inches and North Little Rock with 6 inches, according to Yakoubian’s post.
In a follow-up X post, NWS Little Rock shared a radar image that estimated local rainfall. Some areas saw as much as 9 inches of rain, according to the radar data.
“Here is the amount of rain the area has received over the past 48 hours, based on our network of radars,” the post said. “As you can see, there was a swath of some very heavy rain from the NW corner of the state, through the metro area and into SE Arkansas.”
What People Are Saying
KARK chief meteorologist Todd Yakoubian posted on X on Thursday: “Little Rock has received our average August rainfall this morning alone and there’s more on the way. Also, this amount of soaking rain will help prevent us from reaching 100 degrees through the end of the summer.”
NWS Little Rock in a forecast on Friday: “Precipitation chances will be considerably less over the next week or so versus what has been seen of late.”
What Happens Next?
Precipitation chances in Little Rock fell on Friday, with temperatures remaining below average. NWS Little Rock anticipates that there is a low chance for precipitation on Monday for Labor Day.
As of Friday afternoon, there were no NWS weather alerts in place for the Little Rock forecast region.
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