Some parts of Southcentral Alaska could see heavy snowfall going into Tuesday.
The National Weather Service is forecasting between 16 and 30 inches of snow in the Upper Susitna Valley, while the area north of Seward along the Turnagain Arm could see between one and two feet of snow.
Weather service meteorologist Brandon Lawson said the shift in weather — from cold to warmer and snowy — is a result of large low pressure systems moving up from the Kenai area.
“It’s actually a little bit of a pattern change,” Lawson said. “We had most of our lows tracking further south, which has kept us, pretty much all of Southcentral, pretty cold for the last couple weeks, 2-3 weeks.”
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Those low pressure systems should bring snow to Southcentral. In Anchorage, the weather service forecasts about 3 to 6 inches in the Anchorage Bowl area with between 5 and 8 inches in the Hillside area. Snow is expected to continue through Tuesday morning and into the afternoon.
Lawson said Southcentral should see a return to lower temperatures after the pressure system moves through, but it shouldn’t last as long as in recent weeks.
“It’s not going to be a long period of significantly colder temperatures,” Lawson said. “There’s going to be more variation to it with each low that moves through, where we have a brief warm-up and then it cools back down.”
For Anchorage drivers, the heaviest snowfall is due for the morning commute, and weather officials are advising of potentially slippery road conditions.
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Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
