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An unseasonably warm January will bring at least an inch of rain to almost all of Southcentral Alaska this weekend, with deep snow set to fall in the Talkeetna area.
Much of the region, including Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the Kenai Peninsula, is under a
flood watch from Friday morning through Monday morning.
“Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations,” National Weather Service forecasters wrote. “Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas.”
A high wind watch for the Anchorage area, in effect from late Friday night through Sunday morning, calls for gusts up to 70 mph along the Anchorage Hillside and 40 to 50 mph in the Anchorage Bowl.
Rising temperatures caused a large puddle on the Anchorage Museum's lawn on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025
Shaun Baines, a senior Weather Service meteorologist in Anchorage, said 1 to 2.5 inches of rain is forecast to drop on Anchorage, the Matanuska Valley and the western Kenai Peninsula from Friday through Sunday, with more in other communities.
It’s a lot of rain for the area. For comparison, Anchorage’s single-day January rainfall record, set on Jan. 21, 1961, stands at 0.84 inches.
“There's a good chance that we could break that record sometime this weekend,” Baines said.
Baines said based on statistical data and estimates, Southcentral will likely not see sustained rain like this again in another five to 25 years.
“That sort of gives you an idea of how unusual an event is,” he said.
The rain is part of a warm winter cycle for Alaska, while swaths of the Lower 48 freeze. Even New Orleans has gotten more snow than Anchorage this winter.
https://alaskapublic.org/news/ancho...rom-the-tropics-to-splash-southcentral-alaska
