Marine Weather and Tide Forecast for Excursion Inlet, AK

FXAK67 PAJK 131447 AFDAJK

Southeast Alaska Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Juneau AK 547 AM AKST Mon Jan 13 2025

SHORT TERM
/through Monday night/...
Quick hits: -Today's gale force low will bring another round of rain and wind to the panhandle.
-Colder air in place at the higher elevations of the highways will support snow.
-As the front tracks through, elevated wind speeds and gusty winds are expected.

Details: Another gale force low will move north through the gulf today. As the front pushes north, wind gusts over land areas will range from 30 to 40 mph as the front moves over your area. Once the front clears your area though, winds should calm back down. Folks in the southern panhandle could see gusts a little stronger, up to 45 mph. The time frame of these elevated wind gusts will be after noon today through this evening. Marine winds will see a similar trend, more details in the Marine section.

More moderate to heavy rain is likely again today with the frontal passage. But with rivers pretty low, any impacts will be minor.

The colder air in place at the higher levels of the highways would allow for snow again. A Winter Weather Advisory and Winter Storm Warning has been issued for those areas.

LONG TERM
A gale force system will continue to push inland in the northern gulf coast into Tuesday. Ample moisture transport along the initial front will continue into Tuesday with higher elevation highways expected to receive accumulating snow while at sea level most communities will see cool rain. Precipitation will begin to diminish in intensity and transition to showers later in the day Tuesday. The best chance for communities at sea level to see a transition to mix or wet snow would come later in the day Tuesday as a wrap around cold front blows into the panhandle from the West. As a result, communities particularly from Icy Strait northward, could transition to a mix or very wet snow with highest chance for accumulation being Haines and Skagway. Overall snow levels will be lowering once more as we see a northerly wind shift in the inner channels due to the next fast moving system approaching the panhandle from the south. More on that below.

Big picture for the rest of the week: Active weather pattern is still on track continuing from the short range through the middle of the week with another system racing up from the south on Wednesday.
Depending on the track of this system and strength of northerly winds ahead of it, the northern panhandle could see some overrunning and thus additional snow accumulation. Models are coming into further agreement though after this system on a break on the second half of Thursday and into Friday. This break will be predicated on a ridge of high pressure rotating into the gulf, combined with arctic high pressure sliding into the interior from the north. This combination should lead to some clearing skies and thus drier and seasonably cooler weather at the end of the week with the next system likely to impact SE AK sometime mid to late next weekend.
Some patchy fog could spring up Thursday into Friday due to lingering showers and light and variable winds in the inner channels before any residual moisture frosts out overnight. Under the influence of this transient ridge, temperatures will struggle to get much above freezing for the northern half of the panhandle Friday and Saturday. Overall a complex pattern with many moving parts through midweek with things becoming a bit clearer towards the latter half of the week and weekend.

Into late week and the weekend, there are indications of some colder air infiltrating the panhandle from the NW on Friday with a brief period of outflow winds possible. This is not expected to be very long lasting as the Yukon high moves off to the east rather quickly. However, it will be enough for drier weather with daytime highs struggling to get much above freezing in the northern half of the panhandle Friday and Saturday.
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