Temperatures early this week are expected to rise as a light snow falls throughout Anchorage, but by Wednesday the weather will be cold and clear again, meteorologists said.
Anchorage will likely warm up into the teens Monday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Shaun Baines, and highs in the 20s are expected Tuesday. Light snow is expected to fall Monday afternoon and evening and again Tuesday night.
The weather system is moving in from the east and expected to drop 1 to 3 inches of fresh snow in Anchorage. The city is so far 6.1 inches below the seasonal average of 38.9 inches of snowfall, Baines said.
Turnagain Arm is expected to get the most snow, said Baines. About 10 to 12 inches of snow was expected to fall Sunday night and into Monday afternoon in Girdwood and east along Turnagain Arm and Turnagain Pass.
The Mat-Su area is expected to see lighter snow than Anchorage, with only 1 to 2 inches falling by Tuesday, Baines said.
Temperatures for most of the month have flirted with zero degrees, but have dropped as low as minus 11 on Jan. 6 and Jan. 8. Baines said the month has so far been colder than average and the trend is expected to continue, breaking the 22-month trend of consecutively warmer-than-normal monthly temperatures.