A blustery and cold Thursday in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Even though it wasn’t a whole lot in Anchorage, the newly fallen snow is not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. In fact, I would not be surprised if this just ends up being the “base layer” for the entire winter season. Time will tell.

Winter has certainly settled in as temperatures Thursday morning again ranged from the mid-teens to mid 20s across the region. Winds out of the north and northwest as high as 20 mph at times made for some frigid wind chilly “feel-like” temperatures, such as minus-3 in Soldotna, and eight degrees in Kenai. While winds will ease up in the afternoon, temperatures won’t move a lot, even with a good amount of sunshine (even if filtered by high clouds). High temperatures today, and into the first few days of November are forecast to be roughly 10 to 13 degrees colder than normal.

Fortunately for Southcentral Alaska, the storm track will stay south of the region as October comes to a close and November begins. An active jet stream will keep storms with strong winds and heavy rains tracking from the Aleutians to near Kodiak before heading into Southeast Alaska. Hurricane force wind warnings are in effect for the coastal and offshore waters of the southern and central Aleutians through late Thursday afternoon with a high wind watch in effect for the central and eastern Aleutians (Unalaska and Nikolski) through late Friday night in anticipation of winds gusting between 70 to 90 mph. By early Thursday morning, winds have gusted as high as 72 mph in Sand Point and 52 mph in Cold Bay.

Scattered showers will be a menace for Southeast on Thursday along with winds gusts near 35 mph. Precipitation will stay scattered and showery through Friday. A more organized and well-developed system moving across the northern Gulf of Alaska this weekend will bring more widespread and likely locally heavy rainfall to the region for both Saturday and Sunday. Snow levels are forecast to remain between 500 to 1,000 feet.

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