{"id":372517,"date":"2025-12-27T06:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T06:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/372517\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T06:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T06:27:13","slug":"snow-returns-to-southcentral-alaska-breaking-up-a-long-cold-dry-spell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/372517\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow returns to Southcentral Alaska, breaking up a long cold, dry spell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AAOAFUYYENBYBEVEXLKWRUO4SI.JPG\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Blowing snow crosses Mountain View Drive during the windstorm in Anchorage on Dec. 14. (Bill Roth \/ ADN) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">The Anchorage area could see between 2 and 4 inches of snow starting Friday, breaking up a long frigid and dry spell for Southcentral Alaska, according to the National Weather Service. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=1274036138103705&amp;set=a.300419252132070\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=1274036138103705&amp;set=a.300419252132070\">low-pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska<\/a> could potentially bring heavier snow for other parts of Southcentral Alaska, with the forecast calling for up to 4-6 inches for areas of the western Kenai Peninsula through Saturday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">The Mat-Su is also expected to see light snowfall, with accumulations of 1-2 inches expected for the Wasilla and Palmer area. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">\u201cEverybody should see a little snow,\u201d said meteorologist Pamela Pietrycha, of the National Weather Service\u2019s Anchorage office. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">Now for the bad news: The Mat-Su will remain locked in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adn.com\/alaska-news\/anchorage\/2025\/12\/13\/gusting-winds-expected-to-gain-strength-this-weekend-in-southcentral-alaska\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.adn.com\/alaska-news\/anchorage\/2025\/12\/13\/gusting-winds-expected-to-gain-strength-this-weekend-in-southcentral-alaska\/\">brutal cycle of howling high winds<\/a> it has seen several weekends this month. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">\u201cThey haven\u2019t had the best of weekends for much of December,\u201d Pietrycha said. \u201cThis weekend will be on par.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">Winds will pick up Saturday, with gusts increasing to 65-80 mph overnight and remaining strong into Monday throughout the Matanuska Valley, she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">The last few windstorms did damage, and it won\u2019t take as much to bring down weakened trees, Pietrycha said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">Areas of west and north Anchorage could also see some wind, but gusts should remain under 45 mph, according to the forecast. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">Girdwood and Portage are also expected to see snow, possibly ending a Portage Lake weather window that has drawn hundreds to ice skate on the frozen lake in recent days. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">People driving should be aware that light, fluffy snowfall combined with wind could cause problems with visibility, Pietrycha said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sans-serif\">The weekend snow doesn\u2019t herald a major pattern change, according to Pietrycha. After the system moves through, the area will be back to the same deep cold and dry conditions that have dominated for most of the month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blowing snow crosses Mountain View Drive during the windstorm in Anchorage on Dec. 14. (Bill Roth \/ ADN)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453,182618],"class_list":{"0":"post-372517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories","14":"tag-windstrom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}