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The worst of recent winter storm is over

Published 10:30 pm Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire 
Fresh snow clings to pine trees in the Mendenhall Valley area Tuesday afternoon.
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Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire

Fresh snow clings to pine trees in the Mendenhall Valley area Tuesday afternoon.

Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire 
Fresh snow clings to pine trees in the Mendenhall Valley area Tuesday afternoon.
Fresh snow clings to pine trees in the Valley area Tuesday afternoon. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)

After a hefty snowfall made its way through Juneau earlier this week officials say the worst is over and a mix of rain and snow is likely on the way.

According to Pete Boyd, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Juneau, the recent storm, which prompted a winter brought in around 5 to 10 inches of snow and varied across multiple different locations in the Juneau-Douglas area.

Boyd said the current weather and the variation in precipitation depending on location is typical for Juneau — and Southeast Alaska — which is home to an abundance of microclimates that can make the weather dramatically different even just a few miles apart.

“Juneau’s microclimate makes a big difference,” he said. “So, your area might have higher or lower amounts of snow compared to an area within a few couples of kilometers — we can get a wide variation.”

He said though the winter weather advisory might be over, NWS still expects weaker fronts of 1-2 inches of moderate snow mixing with rain to continue during the evenings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday and some scattered showers, but noted the fronts won’t likely be large enough to necessitate NWS to put out any advisories.

Going to early next week, Boyd said NWS expects the temperature to fall going into Tuesday and Wednesday along with it becoming more dry and windier.

“We don’t see any indications of any significant snowfall, but the best thing to do is keep up with the forecast and keep prepared,” he said.

• Contact reporter Clarise Larson at clarise.larson@juneauempire.com or (651)-528-1807. Follow her on Twitter at @clariselarson.