textproduct: Anchorage

AVIATION

PANC...Low level wind shear is likely to continue through late afternoon or early evening with a light northerly surface wind at the terminal and southeasterly winds 25 to 35 kt at 2000 ft or less. Sometime late this afternoon to early evening, the southeasterly wind through Turnagain Arm will move over the airport with winds gusting 25 to 35 kt. Although a gusty southeasterly wind is likely to prevail through Friday morning, there may be a period of a few hours tonight into the overnight hours where the orientation of the pressure gradient becomes more north to south and allows for the winds moving through Turnagain Arm to retreat from the terminal and back down Cook Inlet. During this time, winds and gusts may be erratic with light northerly winds interrupted by wind gusts from the southeast, lending to a higher likelihood of LLWS. The southeasterly Turnagain Arm wind will move back over the terminal as a prevailing wind, with gusts to 30 kt, by early Friday morning.

Rainfall will be light and ceilings are expected to be mainly VFR. However, there may be some brief periods of MVFR ceilings in heavier showers through this evening. Some more persistent rain is expected to develop overnight, but VFR conditions are expected to prevail due to the wind keeping the lower atmosphere mixed enough to keep it from saturating. Ceilings are then expected to fall into MVFR conditions Friday morning as winds diminish and precipitation continues to fill in over the terminal.