A winter storm warning has been issued for Tuesday and Wednesday across the upper Lynn Canal. KHNS’ Mike Swasey talked with federal meteorologist Grant Smith from the National Weather Service in Juneau on Monday for the details of the coming storm.

Swasey – Grant, we’ve got a big storm coming into the upper Lynn Canal, can you give us the details? 

Smith – Yes, we’ve got a center a low-pressure storm moving into the Gulf and it’s looking like as it moves into the Gulf, it’s going to swing in a lot of moisture. We already got cold temperatures for areas in the Yakutat and the northern Lynn Canal area. So because of the cold temperatures and moisture on the way, a winter storm watch has been issued for the Haines and Skagway areas. These will be going into effect Tuesday morning and expiring on Wednesday for upwards of four to nine inches of snow for the Yakutat area and six to 10 inches of snow for the Haines area. That’s kind of the first look first glance forecast of what we’re thinking for snowfall totals.

Swasey – You know, it’s pretty interesting, there was some snow scheduled for Friday in Skagway, and Haines got snow and the White Pass and Fraser BC got snow up the Klondike Highway, in Skagway we got nothing. We just got a little rain.

Smith – Yeah, that’s what we had here in Juneau, same story. We were thinking, you know, upwards of two to five inches of snow and I woke up and it was all rain.

Swasey – Yeah, so Skagway was surrounded by snow is that the same thing that’s gonna happen on Tuesday?

Smith – Well, at this point, we’re not thinking that, we’ve got a different scenario. You know, last time, temperatures in the atmosphere were marginal, right there at where it needs to be to see snow. But if it warmed up a degree or two, it all switched over to rain, which is what happened. This time around, our temperatures in the atmosphere are much, much colder going into this next event. 

You know, last time they were around about five to six degrees below zero, which that’s, you know, marginal, you know, now we’re looking at minus 10 minus 12 degrees at a certain layer in the atmosphere, it’s called the 850 millibar layer. So the atmosphere is much colder going into this next event. And last time, I was nervous for the snow because I’m like, you know, the 850 temperature layer is about minus four to minus six, that’s just barely cold enough. But, you know, as I said, this time, we are much colder this time around, so we’re a little bit more comfortable.

Swasey – And then following the snow on Tuesday into Wednesday, it looks like temperatures are going to plummet, what happens over the weekend?

Smith – Yes, yes. So once this first round of snow comes in, as we go into the middle of the week, Wednesday, Thursday, might warm-up, so we’re going to switch back over to rain. And then the low wraps around, brings in even colder air, imagine that even colder air. And so as we go into the weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we’ve got for the northern Lynn Canal areas single digits and teens for overnight lows and highs looking like they’re going to be in the teens and 20s. So very, very cool there this weekend.

Swasey – Time to get the grippers out of storage, huh?

Smith – Yes, now’s a good time to do that.

Swasey – Because it’s gonna snow and it’s gonna melt and it’s gonna freeze and then we got ice and I wonder if that maybe it might last all winter here in Skagway. Who knows for sure? Grant. Thanks so much for sharing the weather with us.

Smith – Hey, no problem anytime.

The storm watch was upgraded to a storm warning on Monday afternoon. For current updates visit weather.gov.