Remember the Year When the Red River Froze in the Ark-La-Tex Area?
We had a pretty brutal cold snap to ring in 2018 in East Texas. If you thought that was bad, though, you didn't live in the Ark-La-Tex area in 1983.
That year, an arctic air mass moved into the area that was able to freeze the Red River. Yup, frozen enough that people were able to walk on it.
C.S. Ross, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Shreveport, told ktbs.com, "It was a record cold air mass. It was pretty well forecast. You have to have three conditions. Long periods of at or below freezing temperatures. The Red River had to of been at low water with very little current. The Red was only about 8 feet of stage. And also very little wind in the period as well. That's what it takes to make ice on the Red River. Cross Lake. Duck Pond. Any body of water here in Shreveport."
The Ark-La-Tex area had 138 hours of at or below freezing that started December 20, 1983. Christmas Day brought a low of 8 degrees with a high of 20.
Many other bodies of water were frozen over enough for people to walk on them.
The warm up began New Year's Day 1984 and the Red River thawed.
You can see some pictures from that freeze at texarkanafyi.com. Did you live in the Ark-La-Tex area during this freeze? If so, do you have pictures? Send them through our free station app.