Forecast: Mild heat, chance of rain, thunderstorms
Sunny skies and warm temperatures are in the offing this weekend, giving residents of the Interior an ideal opportunity to celebrate under the midnight sun.
It took a while for summer to kick in, after an unusually cool lead-up to the solstice. But after a week of daytime high temperatures nearing 90 degrees, some might welcome milder weather.
“As we head into Saturday and Sunday, we should see thunderstorm activity in the region decrease, as our temperatures will also decrease a fair bit,” says Jonathan Chriest, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fairbanks. More of what you might call shirt-sleeve weather.
“We'll stay hot with highs in the mid-eighties through Friday,” he said, “and then over the weekend we'll see highs drop slowly to around 80 on Saturday and the upper 70s for Sunday.”
Cynics might believe beautiful weather only occurs during weekdays, when we’re stuck at work. But Chriest says inclement weather in the form of afternoon thunderstorms are more likely to set in beginning Monday.
"As we get into the later Sunday time period, our flow aloft turns southeast, which generally brings us more moisture,” he said. “So Sunday night into Monday and Tuesday, we could see an increase in thunderstorm activity once again -- except these thunderstorms would likely produce a lot more rainfall than the ones that we've seen this week.”
Chriest says the forecast calls for some light winds throughout the weekend, except in higher elevations along the Alaska Range.
“So we could see gusts around 20 miles an hour on Saturday through the Denali and the Healy area as well as south of, south of Delta Junction. Otherwise, we're looking for pretty light winds across the area. So that's good news in terms of fire potential. And with those cooling temperatures, we'll see an increase in humidity over the weekend as well.”
The weather service maintains a Red Flag warning for the Fairbanks area into Saturday, and a special weather statement advises that lightning is likely through noon Saturday. But the risk of lightning is ever-present this time of year. Alaska Fire Service spokesperson Beth Ipsen says warmer weather increases fire danger.
“The weather forecast -- it looks great for going out and enjoying summer activities,” Ipsen said. “But it doesn't look so good because it could be accompanied with new fire starts.”
The Red Flag warning was accompanied by a special weather statement that cautions people who are outside to seek shelter if they’re caught in a thunderstorm with lightning. It also warned of flash flood potential if a storm brings heavy rain
