If you thought winter was over in Anchorage, the National Weather Service has some bad news for you.
Unseasonably cold air swept into Alaska’s largest city Thursday, and forecasters expect it to stay through the weekend.
Potential for record-breaking low temperatures Friday night/Saturday morning across Southcentral! Dress warm and stay safe. For your local forecast visit: https://t.co/RLCzOjpkjt#AKwx pic.twitter.com/SRv7fN59lE
— NWS Anchorage (@NWSAnchorage) April 8, 2021
The weather service is warning of wind chills as low as minus 25 degrees. There are also high wind warnings in effect for the Whittier and Seward areas.
First records for the storm:
THREE Record Lows Set!#Anchorage: Apr 8: 9º at 12:59am
Old: 10º Set In 1986.Anchorage: Apr 9: 6º at 5:53am
Old: 7º Set in 1986.Most Recent Record Low: May 30, 2017.#KingSalmon: Apr 9: -5º at 7:54am
Old: -2º Set in 1985.Most Recent Record Low: Sept 13, 2020.#AKwx pic.twitter.com/8vYMHnoEt4
— NWS Anchorage (@NWSAnchorage) April 9, 2021
The cold is plunging south into Alaska all the way from the North Pole, pushing a band of snow through Southcentral, said weather service meteorologist Ben Bartos.
“And with that, we’ll have some very strong winds barreling through the area,” Bartos said. “It’s going to hit us like a freight train, if you will.”
The snow is expected to taper off midday Thursday, Bartos said, with northerly winds picking up to 30 mph and gusting to as high as 50 mph. Winds are forecasted to die down Friday, with the possibility of record low temperatures to follow in Anchorage.
New record! The snow depth in #Anchorage is up to 24 inches. This is the latest on record the snow depth has been this deep. The prev. record from 2011-2012 came at the end of Anchorage’s snowiest winter (134.6 in). This winter’s snow is still BELOW normal (69.7 in.).#AKwx pic.twitter.com/oO4hDBw55d
— NWS Anchorage (@NWSAnchorage) April 8, 2021
The coldest areas will be East Anchorage and the base of the Hillside, at between 5 and 10 below zero, Bartos said.
“An Arctic blast of air like this, in basically the second week of April now, is highly unusual,” Bartos said. “This is something we’d expect in January or something like that. So it’s pretty impressive to see this cold of an air mass work its way south this time of year.”
Meanwhile, a highway has alreay been closed:
The Richardson Highway at Thompson Pass (miles 18-45) is CLOSED. There is currently NO visibility in that section due to high winds. Our crews are reporting winds near 100 miles per hour! The forecast shows conditions improving later tonight. Updates at https://t.co/hM7DSzeRDD. pic.twitter.com/kF4ui0HOEV
— Alaska DOT&PF (@AlaskaDOTPF) April 9, 2021
While Bartos said he’s heard from many Anchorage residents that they’re ready for winter to be over, he said the cold should be short-lived: Temperatures in Anchorage are expected to return to the low 40s by Monday.
Meanwhile, consistently below-freezing temperatures and steady snowfall this winter in Anchorage led to a record snow depth Thursday, setting a new mark for this late in the season: 24 inches, according to the National Weather Service. [Alaska Public Media]
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From ACE.com
“Fear sells,” he says, in announcing CNN’s next political propaganda crusade, for “global warming.”
He also says “Climate change is going to be the next Covid thing for CNN.”
Wait till Jeff Zucker gets snow up to his ‘face’ … during Summer!!!!
In our area of ak. We didn’t break any records but did get a bunch of snow and was unseasonably cold. It weird to hear spring birds singing while its cold and snowing. Solar minimum?