Winter kicked off with a snowstorm early in the season in parts of the Kenai Peninsula and greater Anchorage. Now, it’s raining in lower elevation communities, and the snow on the ground has melted, exposing ground vegetation.
This is unseasonably warm for Southcentral Alaska. According to the National Weather Service, it’s also the driest winter on record for the City of Kenai.
“It’s really been the storm tracks all to the west of us that has made this winter very unique, so to speak,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Carson Jones.
Jones says communities at sea level east of these storms, like Kenai and Anchorage, experience warmer temperatures, meaning less snow.
“Normally, we would get a few that would track maybe into Prince William Sound or to the east of our areas, and that’s when we get snow," Jones said. "We just haven’t seen that storm track at all, they’ve all just driven and have been really strong to the west of us.”
Jones says these storms bring easterly winds over the mountains, which dries the atmosphere above the western Kenai Peninsula and parts of Anchorage.
Weather patterns in the Pacific Ocean have recently shifted from El Niño to La Niña, which could bring below normal temperatures and drier conditions to the area. But, Jones says this isn’t guaranteed.
The immediate forecast for communities across Southcentral Alaska calls for more rain and flooding, then cooler and drier weather beginning Tuesday.
