Weather service trims Hillside snow forecast but still expects gusts up to 60 mph overnight

The National Weather Service cut its snow forecast for the Anchorage Hillside and Eagle River on Monday morning but still expects gusts as high as 60 mph overnight that could damage trees and power lines.

The updated winter weather advisory, issued at 10:39 am, calls for 1 to 5 inches of snow, with the most above 1,000 feet, and a trace to a light glaze of ice from 11 pm Monday to 9 am Tuesday. Earlier Monday, it called for 2 to 8 inches starting at noon. The strongest wind is expected on the southern Hillside, including Upper Potter Valley and Bear Valley.

Forecasters now expect a quicker warm-up. A little light snow this afternoon should leave little or nothing on the ground, and the evening should be mostly dry. Snow returns overnight, turns to freezing rain and becomes rain by Tuesday morning.

In Anchorage and the Lower Matanuska Valley, a separate advisory calls for less than an inch of snow and up to a few hundredths of an inch of ice, with gusts up to 50 mph in parts of the Mat Valley. Wind-sheltered areas from east Anchorage up the Glenn Highway to Eagle River, Chugiak, Eklutna and the Butte will stay below freezing longest, so roads there could be icy for the Tuesday morning commute. Matanuska Electric Association has told members to prepare for outages.

Along east Turnagain Arm and in Portage Valley and Whittier, a wind advisory calls for gusts of 55 to 65 mph from 1 to 9 am Tuesday, with a few gusts up to 70 mph possible in Portage Valley.

The wind comes less than two weeks after the Oct. 30 windstorm knocked trees into power lines and cut power to at least 11,800 Chugach Electric members in Anchorage and more than 13,500 MEA members from Eagle River to Willow.

Anchorage's Office of Emergency Management told residents Sunday to be ready for Monday night and Tuesday morning and to check that their car emergency kits are stocked for winter.