textproduct: Anchorage

SHORT TERM FORECAST SOUTHCENTRAL ALASKA (Days 1 through 3)

A complex upper-level weather pattern will persist over the region through early next week. Longwave troughing in the Bering Sea hedges east as inverted troughing in the Gulf of Alaska tracks west. A snow band will set up and stall over Anchorage/Kenai Peninsula tomorrow afternoon through Sunday bringing rounds of moderate to heavy snowfall. There is moderate uncertainty as to where the snow band will ultimately end up, resulting in lower confidence for snowfall amounts.

*Low/High end values are as follows: - Anchorage/Eagle River & western Kenai Peninsula: 2-4" (Low end) / 6-10" (High end). Higher elevations: up to a foot possible. - Seward: 1-3" (Low end) / 3-6" (High end). - Turnagain Pass to Moose Pass: 7 to 11" possible. - Portage: 9-11" with snowfall rates of up to 1" an hour.

Warmer temperatures filters in Sunday afternoon from east to west, transitioning snow to rain. Snow will likely change quickly to rain for coastal areas, but could linger as a wintry mix of snow, rain, and freezing rain for higher elevations of the Seward Highway. Snow may also end as a brief period of freezing rain from Anchorage to Kenai as the warmer air moves over the coastal mountains.

KM/TM

AVIATION

PANC...VFR conditions and light, northerly winds until Saturday night. We are monitoring the progression and evolution of the next system that would bring snow, lower ceilings, and lower visibilities over the terminal by 06Z Sunday.