Alaska Extended Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
639 PM EDT Fri May 27 2022
Valid 12Z Tue May 31 2022 - 12Z Sat Jun 04 2022
...Overview and Weather and Hazard Highlights..
A fairly quiet weather pattern remains on tap for much of Alaska
next week as persistent upper ridging centered over the Mainland
looks to remain in place. This will separate an upper low well
north of Alaska (which may send some troughing into the North
Slope region) from a train of upper level/surface lows in the
North Pacific and keep much of the interior mostly dry and very
warm. Models suggest one fairly strong low should lift into the
west-central Gulf of Alaska Tuesday/Wednesday with limited
AKpen/Kodiak Island and maritime rain/wind threats. The weakening
low will linger into mid-late next week as an emerging upstream
closed upper trough/low with moderate main/triple point surface
lows slowly transition eastward from just to the south of the
unsettled Aleutians to a position well offshore over the central
Gulf of Alaska that would only allow for light precipitation to
work into the Alaskan south/southeast coasts. Overall,
precipitation across most of Alaska should be generally quite
modest. Much of interior Alaska will be quite warm with daytime
highs averaging near 20 degrees above normal for some areas and
fire weather a possible concern in the drier locations.
...Guidance/Predictability Assessment...
Guidance solutions seem pretty well clustered overall at larger
scales for much of the Alaskan domain and vicinity, but overall
the 12 UTC GFS seems best clustered with the 12 UTC
GEFS/NAEFS/ECMWF ensemble means for a smoother blend days 4-8
(Tuesday-Saturday). In particular, this solution tends to downplay
ECMWF/Canadian and in a different way UKMET shortwave tracking
into the western periphery of the mainland upper ridge over
western Alaska. This generally also maintains good WPC product
continuity in a period of at least normal predictability through
much of the forecast period. Applied targeted manual edits to
offset the blending process to ensure sufficient offshore low
depths consistent with upper support and predictability that is
tempered as some guidance trends the later next week central Gulf
low even farther to the south.
Schichtel
Hazards: No significant hazards are expected over Alaska during
this forecast period.
Additional 3-7 Day Hazard Information can be found on the WPC
medium range hazards outlook chart at:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/threats/threats.php
WPC medium range Alaskan products including 500mb, surface
fronts/pressures progs and sensible weather grids can also be
found at:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/alaska/ak_5dayfcst500_wbg.gif
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/alaska/akmedr.shtml
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/alaska/ak_5km_gridsbody.html