Alaska Extended Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service College Park MD
620 PM EDT Sat Sep 27 2025
Valid 12Z Wed 01 Oct 2025 - 12Z Sun 05 Oct 2025
...Synoptic Overview...
A trough and upper low anchored around the Bering Strait will
persist through about Friday, after which a much deeper longwave
trough will absorb the low as it deepens and quickly amplifies
over the weekend. This increasingly amplified trough will support
a large and strong low that will likely deepen into the 970s mb
range as it tracks across the western and northern Bering. The low
will likely become cut off this weekend. For late week,
shortwaves rotating around the upper low will keep conditions
unsettled but highly variable across much of mainland Alaska.
Once the deep trough establishes itself over the Bering and the
subsequent downstream ridging establishes itself over the eastern
half of the state, the weather should become much more
constant...with unsettled conditions across much of the western
half of the state, and ridging and more tranquil weather across
the east.
...Guidance Evaluation and Preferences...
Overall the guidance is in pretty good agreement on the longwave
pattern, while the usual smaller details have their typical poor
agreement. Given that good agreement on the larger scale, a
heavier blend of deterministic guidance, particularly the foreign
models was used. The 12Z GFS was the outlier going into Days 7 and
8 next weekend as its forecast with the large Bering low is to
keep it far more progressive, tracking south to north along the
west coast, and only getting the central pressure into the
mid-980s. With typical variability, the rest of the deterministic
suite was in much better agreement with a larger and slow moving
970s low establishing itself just south of the Chukotsk Peninsula
into the weekend. Thus, that blend was preferred.
...Weather/Hazards Highlights...
No hazardous weather is expected through Alaska for late week
through the weekend. That said, there are several caveats to be
mentioned. Primarily, the large and strong low expected to
traverse the Bering Friday and Saturday will have some potential,
if the stronger guidance verifies, to produce localized winds to
storm force. This is most likely to occur when the low is rapidly
strengthening as it moves north of the Western Aleutians. Thus,
even with the stronger guidance, it's a low probability that those
storm force winds will occur over any land areas. Needless to say
however, gale force winds and rough seas are likely over much of
the Bering this weekend.
Another secondary potential hazard, also depending on where the
large Bering low tracks, is for a period where a narrow
corridor/atmospheric river scenario unfolds over the central
Pacific, with the jet of moisture aimed at the Alaska Peninsula
through Kodiak. Should the low and subtropical highs on either
side of that moisture plume align right, then portions of the
AKPen through Kodiak could see heavy rain sometime between Friday
and Sunday. However, the current forecast keeps the center of the
large Bering low too far north to develop much of a tropical
connection, so this scenario too will need to be monitored, but
appears unlikely to occur.
&&
Wegman
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