New Season is Upon Us

From Weather, to football, to seasons, we are definitely in a season of change.

After what can be described as a wet and generally average summer around the natural state, we have turned the page into fall across Arkansas! Last time we met within this article, it was on the cooler side of things along with being very wet. Since then, Summer took another stand, but a more typical late September, early October has arrived. Deer season is now in full swing, along with high school and college football. So is our typical fall weather, rain, storms, severe weather, oh and still no end in sight for the summer heat, you know summer heat just with pumpkins. It has been quiet for the most part other than one event, however rainfall has been abundant, and so has change overall. More on that in a bit! 

Many are excited for fall. Fall colors, fall festivals and fairs and football. Unfortunately most years Arkansas weather gives us summer until you know near Halloween when we go crazy cold or we have a series of rain or tornadoes. I, for one, am excited about the prospect of our fall color season in the Ozarks and the Ouachitas. You need a few things to get those beautiful colors. Below is that list. 

Wet Spring and early Summer (We were WAY ABOVE average)

Wet late summer and lack of drought conditions

Temps in the 80s in the day and 50s to low 60s at night over the next 4 weeks

Periods of rainfall and no severe freezes in early to mid October

If we can get through that, we should see a great season in terms of fall colors in the natural state. Yes we do have drought conditions ongoing across the east, most of our color stops (the mountains) are at or above average in rainfall thanks to recent rainfall across the state. Can we get a system or two in here to help with the rainfall leading up to it? We shall see. Guidance indicates the warm days and cool nights continue, but if we see the rain to go with it, time will tell. 



NEW ERA OF COVERAGE FOR ARKANSAS WEATHER WATCHERS

For many years, you have seen the great coverage of Cameron, myself and the team on a screen with squares and other countless gadgets, radar etc. In the new digital age of weather, and the constant change to a more stream style for weather coverage, change has to be made. That change brings enhanced coverage by a team you have come to know and love. It already was great, but now with the summer projects nearing completion, the weather team at Arkansas Weather Watchers Media Group is prepared to bring you even better and more in-depth coverage. Over the past several weeks, Cameron, myself and a few others, including new Chief Engineer Ryan have been hard at work for you by developing a news style weather studio that will bring you better, more in depth coverage than you have seen AWW do to date. That first initial test came this past week where we ended up having to test out a few things during active severe weather coverage on the new Natural State Weather Live network. Overall, sans a few issues, everything went off without any issues, which is a testament to the constant work by this team to continue to bring you better coverage. As we do work towards becoming more indepth, this new First Regional Studio setup will help bring not only coverage, but also bring daily outlooks (eventually) and a weekly show on our new network. When we say the best is yet to come we mean it. Between the camera project continuing to take off, the new network in full stride, and of course better coverage, we mean it. Soon you may be even hearing us on some radio networks as well. We are growing and so is our network and coverage! The best is yet to come! 

A LOOK BEHIND AND AHEAD

As we close the chapter on the past and look ahead to the future, man oh man what a great era it has been. From covering in a bedroom or a shed to now having our own studio life comes at you fast!  As AWW continues to grow we have to close the door on the past. We were honored to be featured in the Arkansas Better Business Bureau's Torch Awards this past week where many businesses and franchises came to attend and honor the award recipients. It was great to get to see Katv’s Chris May be this year's Emcee and of course wonderful hosts in downtown. It was different having both your job you work for and the company you're building in the same room but it was a great experience. We also look ahead and continue to look for anyone who wants to invest in the project and help us keep Arkansas covered. Our goal is 50 and we have 12. Anything helps but YOU can be a huge reason that we are able to fully cover Arkansas with these cameras. In terms of weather, fall looks to start off on the slow side of things, but as we head into October, given the lack of tropical events in the Gulf, we could be dealing with a supercharged severe weather season this fall. How about winter weather? Well Cameron has a feeling we could be dealing with a front loaded winter this year, which if you're like me you would take winter weather around the holidays instead of February. We shall see how things come along, but we will have much more on that coming up on November 1st when we release our winter outlook on Natural State Live.

So Long Sam, Thanks for the memories

Well, unfortunately for those of us looking forward to the season, it has not come as we expected. After what looked to be a win against Ole Miss and then Memphis, both fumbled away in the closing minutes followed by a blow out home loss to Notre Dame, we sit at 2 and 3 through 5 games and facing another losing season. On Sunday morning, the U of A parted ways with head hog Sam Pittman after 6 years at the helm. I do not know about you, but I am thankful he took over a program that no one wanted. I will forever remember the season in 2020 picking off 3 wins in which no one thought we would. Then in 2021, man oh man, going 9 and 4, beating Texas, Texas AM, LSU in the same season and being on top of the world in a New Years Day bowl game vs blue blood Penn State. After the Chad Morris fiasco, this felt like our championship. The years following were not as kind unfortunately leading to Sunday, however Sam will be remembered as the one who took us from nothing back to something. So from this writer, I thank you Sam for taking on a challenge and giving it all you got! You took on a brand that had nothing and brought it back to some sort of relevance again. 

NEW SERIES INTRODUCING OUR TEAM! 

Starting next week, I will be doing a series introducing the faces you see and even the ones you don’t. Barring any weather or major sports stories, we will feature 2 members of the AWW Team over the next few weeks leading us into the holiday season.