By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Warm and wet weather characterized the first day of the year in Sitka – but no records were broken, the National Weather Service reported.
“It was really warm and wet everywhere in Southeast,” said Nicole Ferrin, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Juneau.
And more unusual weather is on its way, with temperatures expected to dip into freezing by this weekend.
Some 1.56 inches fell in Sitka on New Year’s Day, which is well off the record of 3.06 inches set in 1952. Other places, including Yakutat and Juneau airports, had record-setting rainfall.
Sitka was warmer than usual, with temperatures ranging from 40 to 52 degrees. The highest sustained wind speed was up to 36 mph out of the east Monday, with the highest gust at 53 mph, coming out of the south at 8:08 a.m. New Year’s Day.
“Over the last couple days we’ve had a really strong southerly flow from the tropics,” Ferrin said. “That gave us a really warm and moist weather front.”
The term “atmospheric river” has been used to describe fronts like this, because the front is coming from such a long distance, and “it has a really long time to gain moisture from the ocean,” she said.
The front passed last night as the wind shifted to the west.
“Since then, we’ve had cold air advection that’s been causing showers today,” Ferrin said. “Once the showers hit the mountains, that has helped to create lift that has caused thunderstorms.” More are possibly on the way, she said.
Winds are expected to shift to the north Thursday, which will create colder weather for several days with lows expected below freezing and highs in the mid 30s.
“It could be even colder than that,” Ferrin said. “Noticeably colder” temperatures should be expected in areas sheltered from the wind, she added.
