The National Weather Service has issued high wind and flood warnings starting in Juneau through Ketchikan.
Meteorologist Grant Smith said several storms will move through Southeast Alaska early in the week with heavy rain and strong winds to the region.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”What we’re seeing is nothing more than a string of powerful low pressure systems moving towards the Gulf which will be coming into the Gulf from the south, over Panhandle” the official said.
An emergency flood alert is now in force from Monday night until Wednesday morning for almost every town in the region, which includes Juneau, Gustavus, Sitka, Wrangell, Petersburg, Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island.
The area of Haines and Skagway In Skagway and Haines, some of the precipitation is expected to fall in the form of snow first. an advisory for winter weather is currently in force for Monday. However, by the night of Monday the rain will get heavier across the entire panhandle, and could bring up to two inches up to Wednesday.
The storms are also expected to bring higher temperatures, which may cause melting of the snow that’s been accumulating throughout the region. Together, snowmelt and rain can cause flooding in areas with low elevation, however, Smith noted that the levels of water are typically low throughout the region. This means that rivers, lakes and streams may rise, but will not necessarily overflow their banks.
The rain will be accompanied by strong winds in certain areas. The high winds watch will be in force Tuesday and Wednesday Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island. Continuous winds of 20 to 30 mph are likely and gusts of as high as 60 mph which could result in the possibility of power outages, tree falls and wind-related damage.
The combination of rain and strong winds mean that landslides isolated are feasible on steep hillsides.
“span” style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Do do we really expect these things to take place? Do we have a forecast for these events? We’re not,” Smith said. “It’s simply that, with the conditions of the atmosphere that we’re forecasting, we have experienced these conditions in the past. That’s a red signal.”
The forecast will be revised on weather.gov when the storms make landfall.
