Weather

Remnants of two typhoons will bring wind and rain to Southcentral Alaska

The remnants of a pair of typhoons will bring strong winds and rain to much of southern Alaska from Wednesday through Friday morning, meteorologists say.

In Southcentral, rain will be heaviest along the Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound coasts, said Tim Markle, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Anchorage. Whittier could get 2.5 to 3.5 inches of rain, while Seward is expected to get up to 2 inches, he said.

The weather service predicted the eastern Kenai coast could see winds from 15 to 20 mph.

“We are going to see an increase of southeasterly winds across the Kenai Peninsula, the Turnagain Arm and the Anchorage Hillside,” he said.

As those winds funnel through Portage Pass, they will intensify, reaching up to 50 mph along Turnagain Arm and 30 to 40 mph on the Anchorage Hillside, Markle said.

Rain is not expected to be as severe in Anchorage because the Chugach Mountains block much of the precipitation from moving further west.

“In the heart of the city we will probably escape the strongest winds, with 10 to 15 miles per hour in town,” Markle said. Rainfall is forecast to be just a fraction of an inch in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

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Anchorage could see scattered showers through Friday morning, he added.

[Typhoon that blasted Japan morphs into rainy, windy autumn storm for Southwest Alaska]

The storm is a result of two deadly weather systems that moved across the Pacific into the Bering Sea region.

“The Bering low pressure is a result of the remnants of Typhoon Lingling, which now is drawing moisture from the remnants of Typhoon Faxai,” Markle said.

Faxai struck Japan on Monday, and Lingling battered the Korean Peninsula over the weekend.

Although rain, cloud cover and an increase in relative humidity will help dampen wildfire conditions that have plagued Southcentral Alaska this summer, Markle said, it is hard to predict how high winds will affect smoldering fire activity.

In Southwest Alaska, “the front is moving into the coast right now,” National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Ahsenmacher said Wednesday afternoon. “Kipnuk is already seeing gusts of 50 miles per hour.”

Meteorologists are predicting 2 inches of rain along the Bering Sea coast, with an inch expected in the interior.

“This is not flooding rain, but a very good bout of heavy rain,” Ahsenmacher said, adding “there is very a slight change of coastal of erosion. However, the storm track is not conducive to that. In most falls this is actually a very normal storm.”

Jeff Parrott

Jeff Parrott is a former general assignment reporter for Anchorage Daily News. He graduated with a master's degree in 2019 from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and is a former U.S. Army officer.

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