Heavy rain and heat for Alaska

[00:00:05]Hey, welcome back. Again, it is a first alert weather day. If you're just joining us, here's what you need to be prepared for this week. Today, we're already under flood watches. Heavy rain Sunday and today has beginning to add up, beginning to fill those streams, creeks, and rivers starting to reach bankfull. Now, as we head into Wednesday, we are going to see rounds two and three of heavy rain moving through. As it's really important that even late into the week, that you're prepared for high water and poor visibility, uh especially here around our area towns and roads and highways here in town. Now, looking at the radar, you can see it's that steady stream, this atmospheric river, a steady flow of moisture here into South Central. The good news is that it's starting to lift to the north and east, and so we're starting to get uh some relief in behind this. Drier conditions likely for most of South Central overnight tonight into tomorrow morning. That'll give places like Seward that have been uh bailing out the water some time to recover before that next round gets here. Uh the Kenai River, which is also running high, some time to slowly recede before uh that next round moves through. Same story here in Anchorage with Campbell Creek and Chester Creek, uh which are both under flood watches tonight. Uh we saw crest yesterday and then again this afternoon. Uh they're running right at bankfull, pushing into minor flood stage. So, still seeing that high water today, and then everything that filters down into the creeks from those storm drains uh will take some time as well.

[00:01:32]But again, the good news is a little bit drier overnight tonight into tomorrow morning. Looking at those precipitation totals, you can see impressive, already seen 1.67 inches of rain uh in the past 48 hours. This is since Sunday morning.

[00:01:46]Similar amounts in the valley, Kenai about an inch, but look at Seward, 3 and 1/2 inches for you. Portage Glacier, we've seen over 4 inches of rain pushing through Portage Valley. The other part of this is it's been chilly. High temperatures struggling to even out get even out of those mid-50s. And at 56, that ties the record for the coldest maximum temperature that we've seen on this particular date. We also tied that record yesterday. So, unusual to see temperatures this cold and to see this much rain in the month of July. So, we do still have flood watches in effect for the Kenai Peninsula, for Seward, and for Anchorage. That's for those river streams, creeks that are all running high. But also just for urban flooding, for standing water that we're seeing here around town. And then into the Susitna Valley, along the Yentna River, we are seeing flooding likely now at this point along those low-lying cabins along the river, particularly out near Lake Creek. This is a flood advisory.

[00:02:46]Now, the Yentna River has been up and down here over the past couple of weeks.

[00:02:50]But now it's right at the edge here of pushing up beyond minor flood stage.

[00:02:55]Now, you can see the record for the Yentna River at this point as 22.4 ft.

[00:03:00]And right now it's sitting forecasted to be at 22 ft. That is as we head into tomorrow. So, again, use extra caution there along the Yentna River. Further to the north, we also have weather warnings in effect, but for a completely different reason. Heat advisories are in effect for the eastern side of the state and for the Brooks Range just tonight for high temperatures pushing into the mid-80s. We also have a wind advisory here for those eastern Alaska Range passes. But the next storm system is already brewing here in the Bering Sea.

[00:03:30]That is our next weather maker pushing in Tuesday afternoon to the Kenai Peninsula, to the north from there. And then we'll see that next storm following right in behind it. This was a little bit further to the north, so reaching even into Seward Peninsula. But that will be the weather maker as we head through the day Wednesday into Thursday.

[00:03:47]So, additional rounds of heavy rain on the way. In Southeast, the only place you have to worry about that is in Yakutat. Otherwise, it's warm, sunny, and dry. In fact, we do have a heat advisory now in effect for Hyder as well. Across the Kenai Peninsula, it is that heavy rain moving in through the second half of the day. You'll see that pushing into the evening through Prince William Sound and the valley tomorrow.

[00:04:08]And for Anchorage, watch out for those breezy winds, high temperatures into the upper 50s. As we look ahead, heavy rain with that first alert weather day on Wednesday. Much improved conditions, though. Ariane, as we head into this weekend, those high temperatures get back into the upper 60s and the subject