textproduct: Anchorage

AVIATION

PANC...VFR conditions, with ceilings above 5,000 ft AGL and occasional flurries and/or freezing sprinkles, will persist through late evening. Northerly winds at or below 10 kt will likely shift out the southeast with stronger gusts for a time this evening as a front lifts across Prince William Sound and a weakening surface low moves over the Kenai Peninsula and northern Cook Inlet. A secondary surface trough, or weak low, will then develop along the front over Prince William Sound. This new feature will flip the pressure gradient, allowing for a return to light northerly winds. This feature may also interact with an upper-level trough over Cook Inlet, spreading moisture in the form of light snow over the Anchorage Bowl by early Friday afternoon. Confidence in this solution is low, given the forecast model uncertainty. However, the set-up does favor this solution, with a period of very light snow possible. Any snow may allow for VFR cigs and vis to drop to MVFR before the snow and the associated surface trough exit the region. Fog may also develop Friday night as winds at and near the surface slacken while low- level moisture lingers underneath a transient ridge moving over the region.

-TM