


Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Juneau, AK
Issued by NWS Juneau, AK
636 FXAK67 PAJK 030544 AAA AFDAJK Southeast Alaska Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Juneau AK 944 PM AKDT Tue Sep 2 2025 ...06Z Aviation Discussion and Evening Update... No major changes to ongoing forecast. Overland and inner channel winds remain largely 10kts or less, outside of Clarence Strait which is currently seeing southeasterly 20kt winds near Ship Island. Strongest Gulf winds remain along the N Gulf Coast and down coastal Baranof Island with Buoy 46083 outside of Cross Sound and Buoy 46084 west of Baranof showing NW-ly winds around 20 kts. Through the rest of tonight, anticipating trends to remain generally the same with resurgence of marine layer and fog potential into Cross Sound, down the western fringes of Chichagof and Baranof Islands, and northward into Clarence Strait through early Wednesday morning. && .SHORT TERM.../ through Wednesday night / Similar to yesterday, the above normal temps and clear skies continue for SE AK. Key Messages: - Clear skies with near 0% chance for precip. - Above normal afternoon highs in the 70s to around 80 likely for most of the area. - With the exception of sea breezes, wind speeds will remain light. - Some concern for spotty areas of marine layer development. The blocking high pressure ridge persists pattern continues. and this will keep main flow pattern away, but allow marine stratus decks to move in and out of the areas like Cross Sound and Chichagof Island. Patchy fog overnight under the marine deck with visibility`s dropping to a mile or less. May need to watch for potential dense fog issues, I think mainly in the Cross Sound area. .LONG TERM... Key Messages: - High pressure over the gulf continues warm, dry weather - Temperatures remain above normal through midweek - Slight cooling over the weekend with increasing clouds and rain chances, particularly for northern gulf coast A blocking ridge and accompanying surface high pressure in the central gulf will weaken slightly later this week, but still dominate the overall pattern for southeast Alaska. Warm and dry summer weather will continue, with the southern panhandle still on the receiving end of the warmest temperatures, reaching the upper 70s with isolated areas further inland reaching 80 Thursday. Lack of cloud cover combined with daytime heating will continue to lead to brisk sea breezes for communities along the inner channels, with the strongest winds expected in northern Lynn Canal and Taiya Inlet with thermal troughing developing over the interior. Expect these to pick up in the afternoon hours to moderate to fresh breeze consistently through midweek but to a lesser extent heading into the weekend. This is due to the surface high pressure weakening slightly in the gulf due to a low moving into the Alaska Peninsula. This will lead to a further slackening of the gradient over the central and eastern gulf and thus further diminishing of winds in that area, as well as seas of 5 ft or less, mainly driven by a westerly swell pushing into the central and eastern gulf on Friday. In terms of rainfall, there is not much to be had due to the blocking ridge deflecting almost any developing systems away from our side of the gulf. An upper level trough near in the latter half of the week will bring light rain chances (up to 30 %) to the northern gulf coast along with light shower chances to the outer coast, but the next organized system that has a chance to properly break us out of the dry and warm pattern continues to be elusive. For the rain chances this weekend, model ensembles are trending towards trying to break down this ridge and push a more persistent trough and surface low into the gulf early next week, but time will tell. && .AVIATION... Varying flight conditions across the coastal panhandle TAFS this evening as marine layer has begun to return, with MVFR to IFR flight conditions ongoing at Yakutat and Ketchikan. Elsewhere across the panhandle TAF sites, VFR flight conditions prevail under an upper level SCT deck around 10,000ft. For tonight into Wednesday morning, anticipating aforementioned marine layer to persist and continue to expand, moving into the Icy Strait Corridor, southward along the Baranof Island coast, and a resurgence northward out of Dixon entrance towards Annette Island and the Ketchikan Borough through Wednesday morning with flight conditions MVFR or worse with CIGS AoB 1500ft and reduced visbys as low as 1/4SM at times. Similar conditions to yesterday, albeit anticipating widespread VFR conditions to prevail across the panhandle by 20 to 22z Wednesday. Winds largely return near 5kts or less and variable overnight into Wednesday.Strongest winds through Wednesday up to and around 15kts and gusts up to possible 25kts under any sea breeze interactions. No LLWS concerns through the TAF period. && .MARINE... Outside: Little change from yesterday. High pressure continues to control our skies here in SE AK. Swell remains out of the south at 2ft 14-18 seconds, with wind waves of 6 to 10 ft less than 10 seconds along the Prince of Wales (PoW) Coast and Dixon Entrance. These wind waves are being driven by fresh to strong breezes (17 to 27 knots) out of the NW, highest winds off the coast of PoW and Cape Fairweather. Wind speeds look to decrease for the second half of the week as the high pressure weakens. Inside: Sea breezes continue to be the primary concern for the inner channels over the next 48 hours. Reported winds speeds have been getting up to around 10 to 20 kts in the usual trouble spots, Near Point Couverden, the tighter spots in Stephen`s Passage, and in Southern Chatham Strait. Winds should calm down during the overnight and stay lighter into Tuesday morning before picking back up again for Tuesday afternoon. Wind speeds look to decrease for the second half of the week as the high pressure weakens. && .AJK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... PUBLIC...Heat Advisory until 7 PM AKDT Wednesday for AKZ319-325-328-330- 332. MARINE...Small Craft Advisory for PKZ641>644-661>664. && $$ UPDATE...NM SHORT TERM...Bezenek LONG TERM...STJ AVIATION...NM MARINE...Bezenek Visit us at http://www.weather.gov/Juneau