The National Weather Service office in Juneau is predicting some sloppy weekend weather for the capital city.
Snow is expected to begin falling Friday, but warming temperatures over the weekend will turn that falling snow into falling rain by Sunday.
By Monday, steady rain enters the forecast.
As a result, the Weather Service is cautioning residents to expect slick conditions. Temperatures will be above freezing during the day and near freezing at night.
In a special weather statement issued Thursday, the Weather Service says, “slick conditions will develop and make travel hazardous.”
The warmup is courtesy of a storm moving in from the Gulf of Alaska. In the Earth’s northern hemisphere, cyclonic storms rotate counter-clockwise. In Southeast Alaska, that means storms that move in from the Gulf of Alaska pull moisture from the southwest and the warmer waters of the central Pacific.
The cold air that has dominated Southeast’s weather for the past week will chill the first of that moisture, but the storm’s winds will eventually brush aside the cold air in favor of the warmer air that accompanies the southwesterly flow.
