UPDATE: The National Weather Service’s winter storm warning for Juneau has been downgraded to an advisory, with new snow totals around 3 to 6 inches.
Juneau’s first snowfall of the season will be a big one.
The National Weather Service here has issued a winter storm warning and is saying between 6 and 9 inches of snow will fall between 6 a.m. Friday and midnight Saturday morning.
“It’ll be the first measurable snowfall of the season,” said Edward Liske, meteorologist with the Weather Service in Juneau.
The snow will be heaviest from midday through the late afternoon. The Weather Service was expected to update the forecast about midnight Friday morning, but no significant change was expected.
The snow is expected to come from a fairly typical front moving through the Gulf of Alaska, Liske said. Moisture from the front is expected to travel over the cold air that Juneau has experienced over the past week, setting up an “overrunning” system.
Until late Wednesday, computer models indicated most of the snow would be confined to the outer coast. Juneau had only a 40 percent chance of snowfall. As more information arrived, the models changed. Juneau is now expected to receive as much — if not more — snow from this storm than any other place in Southeast.
“It was definitely a drastic change over the last 24 hours for the Juneau area especially,” Liske said.
He said the storm will not be accompanied by any wind, something slightly unusual for Juneau winter weather. A Taku wind may develop over the weekend, he added.
The snow will bring slightly warmer weather to the Juneau area, Liske said. The Weather Service is expecting high temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s.
• Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 523-2258.
