Marine Weather and Tide Forecast for Sitka and, AK

SHORT TERM
/Through Friday Night/...Our current weather pattern continues with a series of fronts pushing in, bringing primarily rain to the Panhandle with light snow with accumulations remaining below advisory levels, specifically remaining around 2 inches or less for each 12-hour period, for upper elevation areas like the Klondike HWY. For the short-lived ridging breaks between the fronts, expect primarily rain showers with moist onshore flow for the region. Up to around 25 kt small craft advisory southerly gradient winds are anticipated through Friday for primarily northern Lynn Canal & for late tonight for Stephens Passage in the Inner Channels. For this afternoon through Friday, up to around a 25 to 30 kt barrier jet looks to remain set up just west of Icy Bay & going out about 20 nm offshore.

LONG TERM
/Saturday through Tuesday/...Heading into Saturday morning, a broad, fast-moving low will jump up to around the 50th parallel north and send an occluding frontal band north into the far southeastern gulf. Guidance is still somewhat split on how far north this front will go, but there is agreement that this will most likely scrape the southern portions of the panhandle.
Combined with another frontal band from the remnants of the low in the northern gulf, a majority of the panhandle will be seeing around half an inch of precipitation through Saturday. Rainfall rates are expected to taper off through Sunday morning before another front moves along the northern gulf coast Sunday afternoon, forcing the lingering precipitation to shift southeast out of the panhandle. Uncertainty has somewhat improved from yesterday, with models coming more in line with a potential break in rainfall Sunday afternoon before the next frontal band moves into the northeast gulf coast. Locations near Yakutat and along the northern gulf coast will see the most rainfall with this system on Sunday, but the frontal band is expected to spread into the rest of the panhandle by Monday. Due to the northern track of this front, precipitation has the possibility of falling as snow overnight for northern locations near Yakutat and the northern highways. Gusty winds through the outer gulf waters and into the N/S oriented channels will be present with this frontal band. High temperatures look to slightly increase through the period, though low temperatures look to stay relatively consistent around mid 30s. This front looks to push southeastward Tuesday, dragging precipitation through the central & into the southern panhandle through the rest of the period with post-frontal moist onshore- flow showery activity following behind it into the future. For Tuesday, expect an increase in WSW winds up to 35 to 40 kt gales for the southern half of the eastern gulf waters associated with the aforementioned weather system.

AVIATION
/through 6z Saturday/...The frontal band moving eastward into the panhandle is sitting just offshore as of late Thursday night, about to push into the outer coast of the panhandle. Yakutat is already in the thick of it, seeing light snowfall with restricted VIS down to 1 to 2 SM with CIGs around 1000 ft. This will eventually turn to rain through the early morning hours, though overall accumulations will remain low and inevitably wash out. The rest of the panhandle is expected to see majority rain with this system, though areas north of the Icy Strait Corridor may see snow mixing as the front initially moves through. The front will bring conditions down to MVFR to IFR overnight and into Saturday morning, with lowered CIGs AoB 2000 ft and VIS AoB 4 SM. Snow level is very low with this system, so higher elevations will see snow through the night. IFR conditions will be the predominant flight category overnight as the front initially moves over, but conditions are expected to raise slightly back to MVFR through Saturday once the front moves northeast out of the area. Moisture will continue to funnel widespread showers into the panhandle behind the front, keeping precipitation in the TAFs for the panhandle. A more reinforced band of showers is expected to move through Saturday night, which may bring conditions back down to IFR.

MARINE
The broad high pressure system that brought northwesterly flow at 20 kt across the eastern Gulf of Alaska yesterday with diurnally driven southerly winds in more sunshine over the northern inside waters has switch to a more broad (and lighter) westerly flow over the eastern Gulf and another round of southerly winds (slightly lighter today though) across Lynn Canal and portions of Stephens Passage. As we note a small low pressure system moving across the northern Gulf of Alaska tonight into Friday, and an associated warm front moving northeast across the eastern Gulf, we will see an increase in winds off Icy Cape and Cape Suckling tonight (east to southeasterly 20 to 25 kt with 6 to 8 ft seas) and increasing southerly winds for Lynn Canal and portions of Stephens Passage tonight into early Friday due to a tightening north to south pressure gradient. These areas are where we have posted Small Craft Advisories tonight into early Friday.
Otherwise, we note an increase in winds for the northeastern Gulf of Alaska and the northern Inner Channels Monday into Tuesday as we see a somewhat stronger low pressure system move east along the northern Gulf early next week, and another low passes us to the south across Haida Gwaii.

AJK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES
PUBLIC...None.
MARINE...Small Craft Advisory for PKZ012-031-652-672.