Southcentral sees off and on periods of light rain through Sunday
Flood Watches issued for portions of Southeast as heavy rainfall begins the week
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Much of Southcentral saw a welcome and needed break from the rain and the clouds on Saturday. This allowed temperatures to rise to “normal” levels in the low to mid 50s before rain returned late Saturday afternoon.
That change from sunny to wet happened pretty quickly, too. Under a mostly sunny sky, the temperature at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport reached 54 degrees just before 1 p.m. It generally held there over the next couple of hours, but by 3 p.m. clouds had quickly overspread the city, forcing and end to any additional warming. By 4 p.m., rain was falling, which caused the mercury to drop into the upper 40s.
Unfortunately, those clouds, along with “off and on” periods of light rain are here to spend the night in Southcentral overnight and into much of Sunday. I am hopeful for some sunny breaks by late afternoon and early evening, but the clouds and moisture will have dominated the day causing Sunday afternoon highs to barely climb above 50 degrees across much of of the region.
Dry weather may start your Monday, but rain could once again be scattered about the region by afternoon, continuing into late Monday night. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a “sunnier” break in the action on Tuesday. Rain arrives again on Wednesday with another low pressure system out of the Gulf of Alaska. The area may stay wet through Friday, but our computer models are signaling a sunny start to the month of October next weekend.
Wet may seem like an insufficient adjective for the weather in Southeast for Sunday on into much of the upcoming week. A persistent flow of moisture (atmospheric river, if you will) streaming northeastward from the eastern Pacific will send round after round of rain, heavy at times, into the region. For the first half of the week, the northern and central channel locations (Haines, Skagway, Hoonah, Juneau, Gustavus, and Sitka) receive the heaviest rainfall, which could total 3 to 6 inches in some locations, especially in higher elevations. With the already saturated ground, and heavy rainfall from the previous couple of days, the National Weather Service office in Juneau issued a for these locations beginning Sunday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon. The forecast excessive rainfall and subsequent runoff could send rivers, creeks, and streams out of their banks as well as cause other flooding issues in other low lying and poor drainage areas.
There remains a large amount of uncertainty for the remainder of the week in Southeast, but the pattern does favor additional rainfall, though perhaps more scattered in nature.
Stay safe and enjoy this last week of September!
Copyright 2022 KTUU. All rights reserved.