June 1, 2026 - Alaska Weather

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01]And now, the general weather around Alaska.

[00:00:06]Welcome everyone to another edition of Alaska weather. I'm meteorologist Peter Chan coming to you from the National Weather Service in Anchorage, Alaska on this first day of June 2026.

[00:00:18]And looking at the weather-related headlines, we always have something going on in the state of Alaska. And even though it's been a little quieter to end out last week weather-wise, we have a strong low pressure providing gale to low-end storm force winds and some periods of heavier rain across Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula.

[00:00:38]And that system will begin to taper off and wind down tomorrow for Tuesday.

[00:00:43]There is a red flag warning for the lower Mat-Su Valley for until mid-evening until 8:00 p.m. this Monday evening because of warm temperatures, low humidities, and some gusty winds that would uh make fire danger very high and make it easy for any fire starts to spread quickly. And then in Southeast Alaska, uh very warm temperature shaping up for tomorrow. We're going to see drier and warmer uh temperatures across the not just Southeast Alaska in the Panhandle, but central and southern areas of the interior through midweek.

[00:01:19]But as you would guess, nothing lasts forever. It does look like the pattern will be breaking down later this weekend and into next week. It's going to turn cooler, closer to normal with the occasionally wet weather returning again.

[00:01:34]And in the meantime, up there in the far north, Deadhorse, along the Arctic Coast North Slope, some low overcast, 30°.

[00:01:42]You're not going to get into the warm weather like central and southern areas of the mainland will. In fact, the cold air is going to kind of cycle through.

[00:01:50]We've had one little system pull through Sunday into Monday. And then we have another one coming in, a cold front uh that'll just kind of set up there through the North Slope and Brooks Range on Wednesday into Thursday and then a stronger front will be bringing in cold air across the north and western side of the mainland as we get into later uh this weekend Sunday into next Monday.

[00:02:15]Kodiak wind, rain, and fog 46°. You can see it out there a raw day.

[00:02:21]Winds gusting 35-40 knots. Palmer partly cloudy 64° as of mid-afternoon. This is where the red flag warning is for breezy conditions, warm temperatures, and low humidities. And then Ketchikan you can see the influence of that high pressure ridge just bright blue sky, sunny conditions, 65°, and tomorrow temperatures there will be at least 10° warmer. Uh in some areas you get up away from the water. Uh highs are going to be 80° to near 85°. Uh some of the normally warm spots like Klawock and Craig and maybe uh Hyder could see temperatures at 80° or a bit warmer even.

[00:03:04]And looking at what we have in terms of advisories, everything seems to be confined in and along uh the Gulf area or southern Alaska. We'll start here with the We have both a wind advisory and a flood watch for Kodiak Island and the west side there of Shelikof Strait in the northern Alaska Peninsula.

[00:03:25]We have northeast to east winds uh that are gale to gusting to low storm force 50 knots. So, that's uh winds could still gust as high as 45 to near 60 mph uh into later this evening. And then the threat of still uh some moderate to heavier rain uh 2-4 inches of rain along the east side of Kodiak Island with locally higher amounts possible in the higher terrain there and also where the terrain rises abruptly there on the west side of Shelikof Strait. That flood warning's in effect until early on Wednesday morning. Then the next area up here in the lower Mat-Su Valley includes Point Mackenzie through Palmer eastward.

[00:04:08]That glacier, that area there, grasses are very dry and with the temperatures have come up into the mid-upper 60s with a little bit of wind that is enhancing the fire danger. And again, so refrain from any outdoor burning or activities that could throw sparks.

[00:04:25]And out here in the southern panhandle for Tuesday afternoon and early evening, a heat advisory. Some areas here on Prince of Wales Island and that island into the south area up against British Columbia could see highs of 80 to near 85° on Tuesday afternoon and early evening. So here is the red flag warning. There could be a few gusts 20 to near 30 mph through this late afternoon.

[00:04:52]And again, it impacts the area especially down here in the Hay Flats along Kenai Arm. So be mindful there. And looking at the fire danger coming up for tomorrow, we look at the grass adjectives because that's what carries fire very quickly and efficiently this time of year early in the fire season. We see where things have dried out along the west side of the Alaska Range inland from Bristol Bay going up towards Sleetmute and up near McGrath, as well as the areas surrounding lower around Bethel. Some of the grassy areas drying out there. And then up here along the Lisburne Peninsula, a very high fire danger there for the drier conditions with the grass. And then here's the emphasis on the heat advisory. 80 to 85 high temperatures away from the inner channels and the outer coast. So that would include Hyder, Ketchikan, and uh of Wales Island. And the warmest temperatures will be late afternoon into the early evening.

[00:05:51]As far as river breakup goes, the rivers along and south of the Brooks Range are done. It's the North Slope rivers. The Sag River is showing some opening there of the ice. Still the Cole um the Colville River and and the um Kuparuk, they're still have ice, and it's not going to warm up significantly in this area. If you recall last year, we had that sudden warm up where temperatures jumped into the 60s and 70s. There was even an 80° reading, and all of the heavy snow cover melted off along with the ice in like 5 days, causing just uh pretty significant flooding there along the North Slope.

[00:06:28]This time around, it's a slow release.

[00:06:31]Uh we've seen temperatures not even above freezing here along the lower section of the North Slope Plain and the Arctic Coast. So, uh it's going to be a little longer there before that ice really goes. And looking uh at the uh satellite imagery, here is the circulation with that low. The low center is about there at the bottom of your screen in the center, but it you can see the front. Just this nice curl in the clouds, and on the north side of that, cross Kodiak Island and the the uh Alaska Peninsula, especially the Pacific side, you're getting strong winds and periods of rain, and those will continue tonight and into uh Tuesday morning. Though, as we go through the day Tuesday, there'll be a band of rain along the old front as it kind of weakens, but still you'll have some breezy conditions. Even better weather uh will follow for Wednesday.

[00:07:23]And uh across south central areas, there is this little weak area of high pressure that'll help bring warmer temperatures to much of south central.

[00:07:30]There's still a pocket of residual moisture up here uh across the upper portion of the Yukon River that could trigger maybe a few showers, but drying out with these uh this ridge here in the southern uh portion of the mainland and then back toward the panhandle. This is more of a thermal trough or a heat low as a result of those warmer temperatures in the compressional warming you're getting from the trough in the mid levels of the atmosphere. The low down here in the North Pacific will begin to fill. It's going to kind of try to pull east northeastward and as this remnant that front the trough rotates northwestward, it will bring more showers across the panhandle uh starting on Wednesday, especially Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday night. And some of that moisture can get all the way back into South Central by Friday. So uh it's not going to be a long prolonged period of sunny warm weather. Kind of a short shot. If you can get a few days, three, four days out of it, you're doing really well. But here's that low by Wednesday afternoon. There's the remnant front. Some showers already as that moisture comes back to the north and west, you're going to see some showers there across central southern panhandle.

[00:08:40]Still dry South Central and along the Yukon River, Kuskokwim Rivers. But here's this cold front. This cold front's going to come in from the northwest and then stall out right along the spine of the Brooks Range. It'll advance a little further east into northwest Canada and then on Thursday it just kind of hangs up. It's waiting for the next cold push of air to come down.

[00:09:00]There'll be a stronger one later in the weekend and that's going to push cold air into the northern and western side of the mainland as a strong low comes up out of the North Pacific and gets spreads more rain across much into the mainland and in in panhandle. So we are going to see a return to that low pressure coming up from the North Pacific bringing wetter and breezy and cooler weather again to much of the state as we get into late this weekend and especially next week.

[00:09:28]But in the meantime some of that moisture is going to pull back along the panhandle northeastern Gulf Coast on Thursday. May see a few more clouds around the mountains, the Chugach by Thursday afternoon. And as we get into Friday, there could be a few sprinkles or even some lighter showers popping up in parts of the Mat-Su Valley as that moisture will get that far west.

[00:09:51]So, temperatures are going to be below freezing along the Arctic coast north slope still. Everybody else so pretty mild above 40 Yukon Valley and much of the south.

[00:10:02]And then temperatures for Tuesday afternoon, here's an 83 there at Craig.

[00:10:08]And certainly areas up away from the water there in the southern panhandle could see those 80 plus degree readings.

[00:10:15]Talkeetna is looking for a high on Tuesday afternoon around 70 72-ish.

[00:10:22]And even Anchorage getting well into the 60s. We see some 70s along the Kuskokwim Valley and up into the Tanana Valley, especially up toward Tok and Northway and then also around Eagle. And even out here to the west, we find highs in the 60s to near 70.

[00:10:39]Say Galena on up toward Ambler. So, it's it's quite warm. And then Wednesday, we still have temperatures that are going to be a bit below freezing here. There is that colder air that'll begin to filter in from the northwest as we get into later Wednesday and Thursday. You can see highs only near freezing at Utqiagvik and Point Lay, but well into the 70s much more common south of the Brooks Range along the far southern slope of the Brooks Range all across the Yukon Kuskokwim Tanana Valleys. As I mentioned, there could be an isolated 80 degree reading somewhere pop up. One one good spot for that to happen would be maybe Talkeetna or Houston could squeak that out. But otherwise, pretty warm pattern here through the midweek. But this is what's coming up later this weekend and into next week.

[00:11:30]Cooler air is going to be drawn southeastward as a strong low comes up from the North Pacific, so that's going to cool down. You can see the entire state closer to normal along the Alcan border, eastern mainland, and panhandle, but in the northwest, especially Lisburne Peninsula up to Utqiagvik and and areas along the Seward Peninsula, this is going to the cooler air is going to want to come southeastward. So, enjoy your sunshine and 60s and 70s we're seeing in this region because that's going to get shut down later this weekend and early next week. And precipitation could average above normal more so as we have some waves of rain and rain showers that'll be moving into the state from that system. Now, this is the June temperature outlook.

[00:12:17]And it was released on Friday, but for the month of June, it looks like the best chance for temperatures to average above normal will be the panhandle and Southeast Alaska. And the east-central interior, the upper Yukon Valley including Fairbanks, Yukon Flats to Arctic Village, what this would imply is that we have a cooler trough of low pressure here over the Bering with systems at times pulling moisture northeastward. So, that's going to keep the southwest coast, the YK Deltas, Bristol Bay, Alaska Peninsula cooler than normal. And the water temperatures within this region of the Southeast Bering are below normal, so that would certainly look probable. And then precipitation may average above normal over the eastern mainland up through especially the eastern Brooks Range and eastern North Slope. So, that's the way things are shaping up here as we enter now the month of June.