Winter Weather — Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

2023-11-22 to 2023-11-23 · Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Event narrative

Alaska DOT reported black ice along the Sterling Highway from the Seward Highway to Kasilof on the evening of November 22, with light, infrequent precipitation across the western Kenai Peninsula. On the morning of November 23, an upper-level trough lifting north across the area brought a band of rain. Around 10 am, an NWS employee reported freezing rain at 29 degrees in Soldotna. Precipitation fell as rain to the south and west as temperatures were above freezing. Temperatures rose above freezing elsewhere as warmer air continued to move in on southerly flow.

Wider weather episode

After a stretch of very cold temperatures associated with Arctic high pressure, a much warmer and more active pattern took shape across Southcentral and Southwest Alaska as multiple low pressure and frontal systems rotated north around a broad, deep low centered over the Aleutian Islands. The deep southerly flow aloft transported much warmer air north with each system. Colder air was able to hold on at the surface over interior valleys and lower elevations even as warmer air above freezing streamed north and west a few thousand feet above sea level. This resulted in favorable conditions for freezing rain and drizzle, with multiple rounds of freezing rain causing difficult travel conditions between 11/21 and 11/24 before temperatures at ground level finally warmed above freezing for most of the southern Mainland.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1142736. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.