Marine Weather and Tide Forecast for Hyder, AK

SHORT TERM
/ through Wednesday night / Arctic boundary stalled over south central panhandle. and moisture streaming into the area so a band of snow forming on front from northern Prince of Wales Island over towards Wrangell and Petersburg. It extends as far north as Kake as well. Snow should continue through the evening and then taper off. Another impulse will spread across the southern panhandle Wednesday and it looks like the snow will finally reach the Dixon Entrance area. Only minor snowfall accumulations anticipated this time, but I've been surprised the last few day.

Northern panhandle the cold weather ( wind chill ) for cold advisories and gusty winds as well from the outflow. So nothing surprising for the northern panhandle. Temperatures in the to near zero or colder for the northern zones, and similar conditions for Thursday morning as well it looks like.

LONG TERM
/Thursday through Sunday/...Only minor changes were made to the long term forecast, mainly adjusting outflow wind speeds and pushing the potential snow for next weekend back a day.

By Thursday morning, the low moving south of the panhandle will have moved inland into BC and dissipated, with strong outflow winds keeping any developing showers offshore until Saturday morning. This means that the panhandle will remain dry through the rest of the week, with low PoPs and partly cloudy skies dominating the forecast. A small surface ridge developing on Friday is expected to make that day the most clear and the least windy. Precipitation is expected to return to the forecast Saturday morning as a low jumps into the southern gulf and sends a front northward into the panhandle. Uncertainty still remains in how far this front will make it through the panhandle, as persisting outflow winds will attempt to force the front to stay more southern. With colder temperatures remaining through the long term forecast, precipitation will most likely fall as snow.
Active weather looks to remain into early next week.

The main concerns for the long term remain the temperatures and winds. The arctic boundary continues to extend southward through the week, keeping below freezing temperatures through the extended forecast. Daytime highs will struggle to reach into the 20s for many locations in the northern and central panhandle, and into the 30s for the southern panhandle. Overnight lows during the week will mostly stay in the single digits up north and in the 10s down south, slightly increasing through the weekend as the next system moves in, though still staying below freezing. An extreme cold warning for Skagway, primarily along the Klondike Highway, is still active through noon Wednesday for extremely cold temperatures as low as 45 degrees below. Cold weather advisories for the Haines Borough and Gustavus have been issued through 9 AM Wednesday for wind chills as low as 15 degrees below, primarily once the sun sets. Strong outflow also persists through the week, with 20 to 35 kt winds and pockets of gales blowing through the inner channels and funneling out into the coastal waters of the gulf. The strongest winds will remain in the northern panhandle, particularly down Lynn Canal and Stephens Passage and out of Cross Sound, with gaps along the gulf coast serving as outlets for strong winds to funnel through. There will be a brief decrease in wind speeds on Friday, though Lynn Canal will still stay above 20 kts before outflow ramps up even stronger than before going into the weekend. Strong gales are expected to spread through a majority of the inner channels, with strongest winds remaining in those hotspots in the northern panhandle. Freezing spray will remain an issue in the inner channels and along the NE gulf coast with these elevated winds, which could become heavy at times.

AVIATION
/Through Wednesday afternoon/...Major changes from this morning due to the arctic boundary retreating north of Ketchikan this afternoon. As a result, far southern panhandle has seen predominantly rain and less impacts on VIS, though still occasionally down to 2sm in heavier showers. North of Ketchikan, banded heavy snow showers combined with gusty winds in places such as Wrangell, have lead to widespread LIFR conditions along northern Clarence Strait/Prince of Wales Island up to Kake. Sitka managed to get clipped as well, but is on the back end of snow showers and should clear out over the next few hours.

Low CIGs AoB 1000 ft coupled with VIS below 1sm will continue for a majority of tonight over the area mentioned above. As the low moves into BC, expect Ketchikan to see a northerly wind shift and snow mixing in. Another system is set to clip the far southern panhandle Wednesday morning, giving another brief period of low end MVFR or IFR conditions with some snow showers blowing through.
Outflow continues through the period so expect so light to moderate turbulence flying through the channels, with continuing LLWS for PAJN.

MARINE
Outside: Strong outflow winds continue to dominate the eastern gulf coastal waters through Wednesday. Gale to storm force winds with strong storm force gusts are blowing out of interior passes, as well as any available drainage channel. Only a minor reduction in strength is expected through Thursday, but winds are overall expected to stay elevated through the week. Wave heights are around 7 to 10 ft through the majority of the gulf, with areas affected by the outflow winds seeing up to 15 ft waves persist through the week. Freezing spray is possible with strong wind gusts, mostly along the coastal waters. The central gulf is more calm, only experiencing disorganized moderate breezes as the low in the western gulf dissipates.

Inside: Strong gale outflow winds have persisted through Tuesday and are expected to continue through the week. A very strong pressure gradient in the northern panhandle is forcing northerly winds with gusts in the 60 kt range down through Lynn Canal and Stephens Passage, as well as strong gale force winds with storm force gusts out of Taku Inlet and through the rest of the inner channels. Wave heights between 8 to 15 ft are expected in areas of the strongest winds, with the rest of the channels seeing around 6 ft or less and diminishing overnight. Channel entrances and areas with greater localized forcing (like Point Couverden) may see up to 15 ft waves at their peak. The pressure gradient is expected to only slightly relax overnight, continuing gale force outflow winds in Lynn Canal and Stephens passage and strong breezes to near gale force winds for the rest of the channels through the week. Cold temperatures with the strong gusty winds are leading freezing spray or Heavy freezing spray levels that would result in coating ships/boats in ice.

AJK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES
PUBLIC...Extreme Cold Warning until noon AKST Wednesday for AKZ318.
Cold Weather Advisory until 3 PM AKST Wednesday for AKZ319.
Cold Weather Advisory until 9 AM AKST Wednesday for AKZ320.
Winter Storm Warning until midnight AKST tonight for AKZ326>329.
Winter Weather Advisory until 3 AM AKST Wednesday for AKZ331.
MARINE...Heavy Freezing Spray Warning for PKZ011>013-031-053.
Heavy Freezing Spray Warning for PKZ021.
Heavy Freezing Spray Warning for PKZ032.
Storm Warning for PKZ013.
Gale Warning for PKZ011-012-022-031-033-642>644-651-662>664-671.
Small Craft Advisory for PKZ021-032-034>036-053-641-652-661-672.