The National Weather Service is asking Anchorage drivers to slow down on their way home from work Thursday afternoon, with a freezing rain advisory in effect for seven hours.
According to the advisory, issued just after 11 a.m. Thursday and in effect until 6 p.m., Anchorage, Eagle River, Indian and Eklutna can expect up to one-tenth of an inch of freezing rain over the course of the afternoon.
"Light rain will begin to overspread the area by early afternoon," forecasters wrote. "By this evening, colder air will erode the warm layer and change precipitation over to snow, which will continue the slick conditions."
Anchorage's forecast Thursday calls for high temperatures in the lower 30s -- the mid-30s at higher elevations, falling to lows in the mid-20s to upper 30s amid less than an inch of snowfall by evening.
As of noon Thursday, Anchorage police dispatchers had received reports of three injury accidents, six accidents and nine vehicles in distress since midnight.
Drivers headed into Anchorage from the Mat-Su already had a slow morning commute Thursday, due to a Glenn Highway crash with minor injuries that closed one inbound lane near Eklutna.