Official National Weather Service forecasts for Central Arkansas — Pulaski, Faulkner, Saline, Lonoke, White, Grant, Perry and Prairie counties, from the Arkansas River and the Big Rock through Little Rock, North Little Rock and Jacksonville out to Conway and Searcy, west to Maumelle and the Ouachita foothills at Perryville, south through Benton and Bryant to Sheridan, and east down I-40 to Cabot, Lonoke and the Grand Prairie at Des Arc.
Every Arkansas region shares one system — the same maps, the same live radar, the same climate record. Central Arkansas sits exactly on the seam. The Ouachita foothills stop at the west edge of Pulaski County and the Grand Prairie starts at the east edge of Lonoke, so the same squall line can be an elevated hailstorm at Perryville and a surface-based tornado at Carlisle ninety minutes later. It is also where the state's winter divides: the ice line in a December storm sets up along I-40 more often than anywhere else in Arkansas, which is why Conway and Searcy lose power and Benton does not.