NWS Juneau: Heavy Rainfall Tuesday | October 20, 2026

Good afternoon, Southeast Alaska. I'm meteorologist Britten Musall with your Monday afternoon weather update. A strong front is going to move into the Panhandle tonight, and impacts with that system are going to shift from west to east through the day Tuesday. We have increasing confidence of a wind shift Tuesday PM west to east and some isolated thunderstorms possible along the northeast Gulf Coast Tuesday PM. With the strong front moving in, issued a flood watch for the northern Panhandle.

Yakutat, Gustavus, Pelican, Elfin Cove, and Juneau all included in the flood watch, with the heavy rain expected to begin tonight. And widespread wind advisories in effect for the majority of the Panhandle, gusts up to 55 miles an hour and some storm force gusts possible in the Gulf of Alaska. Here's your flood watch. It goes into effect 10 PM tonight through Wednesday at 4 AM for portions of the Northern Panhandle, monitoring possible isolated landslides in Elfin Cove and Pelican, flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying areas. Low water crossings may also be flooded.

The majority of the rainfall, the majority of the moisture with the system going to be along the Northeast Gulf Coast. Think from, from places like Icy Bay, Yakutat, toward the Fairweather Range where we're expecting the most amount of rainfall, between 4 to 8 inches possible in Yakutat with this strong low pressure system. 1 To 3 inches possible for places like Juneau, Gustavus, Elfin Cove, Haines, and Skagway, with a little bit less rainfall expected across the southern Panhandle. Widespread wind advisories in effect across the area— Ketchikan, Prince of Wales Islands, up to Yakutat— all included in wind advisories. Gusts up to 55 mph possible.

As we have a cold front move in Tuesday mid-morning through early afternoon, might see some gusts slightly stronger than that for Yakutat. The initial front is going to arrive late tonight in Yakutat, think between about 10 PM, I think around 10 PM or so. That'll be the initial wave of winds. And then again, that early Tuesday morning— or excuse me, mid-morning Tuesday through early afternoon, potentially some gusts a little higher than 55 miles an hour. That front going to move west to east across the northern Panhandle.

Similar story with the winds across the southern Panhandle. Sitka, expect those winds to arrive around 3, 4 o'clock in the morning with that initial wave, and then that secondary wave similar timing to Yakutat, think mid-morning through early afternoon. So that's what we're expecting with this system. For your full forecast, you can always find that on weather.gov/juneau. Thanks for watching.