Temperatures rise as winter solstice occurs at 12:48 p.m.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - After staying below zero on Tuesday, Anchorage finally saw temperatures rise into positive territory just after 3 a.m. Wednesday morning.

As an arctic high pressure system over Interior Alaska slowly moves east, it’ll take the subzero readings with it. Slowly but surely, temperatures will climb through the single digits during the day, reaching early afternoon highs near 10 degrees with abundant sunshine. Brutal and dangerous temperatures in the minus-25 to minus-45 degree range along with wind chill (feels like) values as low as minus-55 degrees will continue over the central Interior today.

A disturbance, currently bringing a round of snow to Yakutat, will pivot back toward Prince William Sound overnight, spreading some light snow westward into Whittier, Portage, and areas along the southern Kenai Peninsula coast. Areas of the western Kenai north of Homer, through Sterling, into Anchorage, then north into the Matanuska Valley, will see just an increase in clouds with maybe a few flurries at best. Temperatures will generally hold steady in the upper single digits above zero overnight, then slowly rise into the lower teens Thursday morning. The region stays dry on Friday as well with temperatures continuing to hover in the lower teens.

Computer forecast models have started to change direction on the timing of our next storm system, and thus the arrival of snow. It now appears that moisture, in the form of light snow, may arrive from east to west across the region as early as late Christmas Eve. Periods of light snow could fall into much of Christmas Day on Sunday before ending in the afternoon. We’ll continue to fine-tune this forecast over the next couple of days, but a couple of fluffy inches of fresh snow may be accompanying Santa, his reindeer, and sleigh this year. So, a new snowiest December record appears to be Southcentral’s Christmas present this year.

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