| Tuesday May 21 2013
Juneau: 53°F
Now in Digital HD on Ch. 5.1!
|
|
| Tuesday May 21 2013
Juneau: 53°F
Now in Digital HD on Ch. 5.1!
|
|
| Home | News | Weather | Contact | Southeast Spotlight | FAQ |
|
Cool fall to give way to normal winter; first snow expected after halloween. Published: 10/25/2012 20:03:00  VIDEO: Cool fall to give way to normal winter; first snow expected after halloween. (Image: Mikko Wilson / KATH-TV) Related: Safety tips and events schedule for Halloween 2011 Michael Mitchell is a forecaster at the National Weather Service's Juneau office, he told us about the current weather: "Well, we're coming off one of the driest Octobers in Juneau history, we're currently running the 2nd driest. Usually October is one of our wettest months, and so far this month we'd had just over 3 inches of rain, when normally we should have had closer to 10 inches of rain." He said the the current cool dry and windy weather pattern is expected to hold through the weekend, but there's some moisture on the way towards the latter half of next week: "For Halloween, we are looking for our dry pattern to hold through about Halloween night. So our trick-or-treaters should be staying dry, but it could be a little bit chilly and breezy." Due to ocean currents out in the Pacific, Alaska is currently in a period of cooler temperatures that will last many years. Because it's so cold at the moment, that precipitation right after Halloween is likely to arrive as snow, the rest of the fall is uncertain. "The long range outlook for the winter of 2012 - 2013 here for Southeast Alaska; The temperatures have an equal chance of being above normal or an equal chance of being below normal. And for precipitation there is a slight tendency for less than normal precipitation though the course of the winter" said Mitchell. One of the big questions looking towards winter, is how much snow we're likely to get. Unfortunately it's a not and easy question to answer according Mitchell. "It's very difficult to tell how much snow we're going to have, because you have to take in the fact that temperature and precipitation have to come together. If it is at normal temperatures and slightly below precipitation, the snow can be fluffier, have a lower water content, therefore we can get equal amounts of snow with less precipitation." By: Mikko Wilson - mikko@kath.tv |
