Weather

Watch high winds whip snow off Penguin Ridge

High winds blow snow off the top of Penguin Ridge near Girdwood on Monday evening, March 19, 2018. A dry weather pattern and the amount of snow this year contribute to the spindrift coming off the peaks of the Chugach and Kenai Mountains when the wind picks up. At 7 p.m. Monday, the National Weather Service recorded winds of 15 mph with gusts to 36 mph atop Penguin Peak.

"We currently have a departing area of low pressure over the panhandle, and a building ridge of high pressure over the Alaska Peninsula," National Weather Service meteorologist Kaitlyn O'Brien said. "These pressure differences (within relatively close proximity) is what primarily causes the windy conditions we'll see in Southcentral AK over the next 24-36 hours. Of course the narrow passages through the mountains really speed things up, too!"

Bob Hallinen

Bob Hallinen has been a photojournalist in Alaska since the 1980s and has traveled extensively all over the state. He retired from the ADN in November 2018 after 33 years at the newspaper.

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