The National Weather Service has issued an advisory for upper Bristol Bay through 9 p.m. tonight, including the communities of Dillingham, King Salmon, Naknek and Pilot Point.
A storm over the central Aleutians is extending east to Bristol Bay, bringing heavy snowfall and winds. Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said that has pushed warmer, moist air into the region.
“For the Dillingham area, we have at the same time cold air continues to feed south from the southwest interior along the east side of the Kilbuck and Wood River Mountains,” he said.
That topography is keeping the air mass just cold enough to produce snow in parts of the region, including Dillingham and Aleknagik, Thoman said.
From when snow started falling Monday night until 2 p.m. today, Aleknagik has received 1.84 inches of total precipitation — that's approximately 18 inches of snow. Further south, the storm is bringing much more rain.
Bristol Bay experienced subzero temperatures over the weekend. Thoman said when cold air is shallow, wind can push it out or cloud cover can warm it up.
“But when that cold air is deeper and reinforced, like we have in the Dillingham area this morning, then you can have these snow persist, even when the larger scale situation would suggest it ought to be raining. And that's of course a feature of the climatology of upper Bristol Bay. And it's another example of how important the terrain is to Alaska weather.”
Snow is expected to fall throughout the day into this evening in Dillingham, and taper off during the night.
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