Alaska Extended Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service College Park MD
624 PM EDT Mon Sep 8 2025
Valid 12Z Fri 12 Sep 2025 - 12Z Tue 16 Sep 2025
...Heavy rain threats into parts of coastal Southcentral Alaska
later this week, and again by next Tuesday...
...Overview...
An upper low over northern Alaska will retreat northward later
this week as upper ridging nudges westward across the Mainland. An
initial weakening surface low over the Gulf which should continue
to bring a threat for moderate to heavy rainfall for the Southern
Coast region late this week. A shortwave moving across the
Aleutians should spin up another deeper surface low into the Gulf
by early next week, which may prove slower to move with the upper
ridge becoming stronger and more blocky. This brings another
period of heavy rainfall to much of the Southern Coast and
possibly into parts of the Southeast. A third surface low looks to
skirt the western to central Aleutians late period.
...Guidance Evaluation/Preferences...
Overall, the 12z deterministic solutions for today showed good
agreement at least on the larger scale through the entire period,
but plenty of uncertainty in the details. The main feature of
interest is the shortwave across the Aleutians which amplifies
sending a surface low into the Gulf early next week. The GFS and
ECMWF seemed to form the better consensus on this evolution with
the ensemble means. The GFS however, seems to favor development of
a triple point low this weekend which shows a much faster/more
easterly position with the cold front mid to late period. The WPC
forecast today favored more weighting towards the ECMWF with more
contributions from the ensemble means later in the period to help
smooth out the detail differences.
...Weather/Hazards Highlights...
The initial system weakening in the Gulf should promote lingering
breezy conditions over favored areas across the AKPen on
Thursday, with modest to heavier rain eastward across coastal
Southcentral to around Yakutat. This area will see the greatest
moisture surge ahead of the cold front combined with enhanced lift
from the terrain. Rainfall totals of a few inches are possible
along the coast with several inches (3-6"+) toward Yakutat per the
NBM/models. For the rest of the Interior, scattered showers will
linger through the period. The next surface low may bring some
scattered showers to the eastern Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula
region, but as deepens moisture lifts northward ahead of the cold
front as it moves into the Gulf around next Monday or Tuesday,
another heavy rainfall threat looks to develop for mainly the
Southern Coast region and possibly northern Panhandle. Gusty winds
are possible as well depending on how deep the low gets and the
resulting pressure gradient across the region.
Temperatures over much of the Mainland (except coastal Alaska and
the Panhandle) will begin the period below normal but moderate to
above normal by the weekend and early next week as upper ridging
builds over the state. Below normal temperatures may hold a little
longer over the North Slope region.
Santorelli
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