Last weekend featured some glorious sunny skies in Southeast Alaska. KHNS’ Mike Swasey checked in with meteorologist Caleb Cravens from the National Weather Service in Juneau to see if there’s more of that sunshine on the way.

Swasey – All right, Caleb, what’s happening with the weather this week? Have we turned to fall already?

Cravens – Well, we’ve not quite hit fall, it is starting to look like it is getting that time though. The first day of fall isn’t until September 22, technically. Now as meteorologists, we consider fall as September 1. We kind of do more of a standard designation for our seasons. And that’s when we start typically seeing the fall-like weather is in, you know, the beginning of September. 

So we are getting there. But, you know, we just had a break in the weather, we had some really warm days, we even saw some sunshine. So maybe that was our final hello to summer and saying goodbye, and then now, fall is arriving. 

So this week, we are expecting weather in the area, we are looking at a low that’s in the Gulf that’s going to be impacting the area through Wednesday. So you’re going to start seeing more consistent rain. And then by the time we get to Wednesday, we really start seeing a drying off for the Northern panhandle, as the system tracks further south. 

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we’re looking more like shower activity, and then by the time we get to the weekend, we are still going to be under that shower pattern. So for the week, we’re looking at your typical Southeast weather where we have rain in the area, shower activity. So, unfortunately, we aren’t seeing any clear signs of sunny skies like we saw this last weekend.

Swasey – Are we expecting any major wind activity or anything like that? Or it sounds like it’s pretty common just kind of cloudy and misty is that… Which one of those is right?

Cravens – Yeah, that actually sounds pretty good. We aren’t looking at anything too impactful. We’re looking at winds 15 miles per hour, Tuesday. Once we get past that we really start seeing a diminishing trend the system heads to the south and like you said, misty and cloudy. Your typical Southeast Alaska weather. 

Swasey – Right? Is there a marker for sunshine in the future? When’s the sun coming back?

Cravens – We are looking at the potential,  there is the chance later this week, the far areas in the northern panhandle, including Haines and Skagway, might be able to see some breaks. The confidence is not very high in that right now. It all depends on the track of the system. You know, how far south it goes, and if we get these northerly winds that can help clear those clouds out. But unfortunately, right now, we are holding on to the cloud cover for you guys through the week.

Swasey – That sounds about right. So we probably won’t be able to see any Northern Lights, although they might be happening in the sky above us.

Cravens – Exactly. And you know, it changes. Definitely, you know, our forecasts, we update it twice a day, on our website and on our social media. And so if we start seeing any kind of signs that you know it’s going to be nicer weather than what we have right now, we definitely will be letting people know. 

Swasey – Well Caleb, thanks for helping us get a grip on what’s happening this week, and hope you have a good one. 

Cravens – Thank you.

For a more detailed breakdown of the Upper Lynn Canal forecast you can visit weather.gov.