A strong wind event is expected to impact the upper Lynn Canal in the late afternoon to early evening hours on Wednesday night. KHNS’ Mike Swasey spoke with federal meteorologist Greg Spann from the National Weather Service in Juneau on Wednesday for the latest update.
Swasey – Greg, tell us about the weather event that’s approaching the upper Lynn Canal.
Spann – We have a small system compact low that’s currently racing northward up past Cape Spencer and up past Fairweather. And as it’s coming northward, it’s bringing a big southerly wind push with it. So right now, the wind is Skagway pretty calm, but we’re already seeing those southerly winds gradually pushing up the channels and gradually pushing up the canals and we’re expecting those to actually reach Skagway a little later tonight. And when they do, we think that they could reach as high as maybe 35 knots sustained. So a really strong wind.
Swasey – 35 knots that’s about how many miles an hour?
Spann – It’s an excess of 40 miles per hour, I can tell you that much but off the top of my head and that’s sustained. Wind gusts will be bound 55 miles per hour as some of that wind push man just work its way down to the surface. Now the good news is that this shouldn’t last too long. Winds should diminish once again, slowly, overnight and through the early morning hours tomorrow. But, you know, right now it’s the calm before the storm as it were.
Swasey – That’s right, so it’s heading northward. So it’s gonna hit Haines then before it hits Skagway, how long in between the two communities I mean, we’re only about 17 miles apart, but what sort of time span are we looking at for it to get from Haines all the way up to Skagway?
Spann – That’s a good question. That’s always one of the challenging questions to answer because it’s you know, it’s the great battle between northerly wind and suddenly outflow. But in this case, we definitely expect the southerly outflow is going to prevail and give us those strong winds. So you’ll get maybe an hour or two difference at most before it hits first Haines and then reaches up northward and finally reaches Skagway.
Swasey – Okay, you’re expecting the gust to increase in Haines at about what time?
Spann – Right now it’s going to be approximately we’re thinking perhaps around 6 p.m. however, that could vary by a couple of hours in either direction. Once again, it all depends on how fast this wind surge is able to work its way up.
Swasey – Okay Greg, thanks so much for the update, I appreciate it.
Spann – Absolutely, have a great day.
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