A winter storm is hitting Alaska today, Monday, November 9, with up to a foot of snow and gusts of 60 miles per hour — while the mountains of the American West wait for heavy snow that is due to arrive on Sunday. The National Weather Service in Juneau has a winter storm warning for the upper Haines Highway, with 8 to 12 inches of snow from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern on Monday, according to Autoblog, reporting at 4:59 a.m. Eastern and citing the National Weather Service offices in Anchorage and Juneau. In Anchorage, advisories from 4 p.m. Eastern warn of 2 to 8 inches on the Hillside and Upper Eagle River, then freezing rain, with gusts to 60 miles per hour. The Anchorage Bowl and Mat-Su Valley face up to 3 inches plus an ice glaze, with gusts to 50 miles per hour, and the western Kenai Peninsula faces 1 to 8 inches, with gusts to 45 miles per hour. Travel will be “very difficult” for the Monday evening and Tuesday morning commutes, the weather service says. The Arctic Coast faces up to 3 inches of snow and gusts to 50 miles per hour on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Snow in the Sierra on Sunday
Further south, the snow is coming on Sunday, November 15. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, in its US Hazards Outlook issued at 3 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, November 7, puts a moderate risk of heavy precipitation over southwest Oregon and northern and central California on Sunday, November 15, and a moderate risk of high-elevation heavy snow over the Klamath Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The National Weather Service in Reno puts snow at Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes on Saturday, November 15, with a 50% to 70% chance of precipitation. Closer to home, the Weather Prediction Center’s forecast for November 8 to 11 brings snow to the higher Cascades, mainly above 5,000 feet. Washington Pass on State Route 20, at 5,476 feet, is still open, with a 10% to 20% chance of at least four inches of snow from Monday to Tuesday, changing to rain on Tuesday afternoon. The probability of significant ice anywhere in the continental United States is below 10%.
A nor’easter to watch
In the Northeast, a clipper system brings rain on Monday for the lower Great Lakes and upstate New York, and a storm system on Thursday and Friday, November 13 and 14, could bring the first snow of the season to central New York, with the best chance at higher elevations. Forecasters are also watching a possible stronger coastal storm — a nor’easter — later in the week, although the track is highly uncertain. One report on Sunday claimed the US had issued a warning for 10 states bracing for snow, but that framing is sensationalised: the underlying National Weather Service quote stresses “a lot of uncertainty” about a possible system “by next weekend”, and it should not be repeated as fact.
Related: Thanksgiving travel forecast still missing as ’82m’ misleads.
