Alert archive / Alaska / Small Craft Advisories in 2021

Small Craft Advisory 478, NWS Juneau, AK

October 17, 2021

NWS Juneau, AK issued this small craft advisory at Oct 17, 2021, 2:38 AM AKDT. It was in force for 4 days.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued
Oct 17, 2021, 2:38 AM AKDT (10:38 UTC)
Expired
Oct 21, 2021, 4:30 AM AKDT
In force
4 days
Issued by
NWS Juneau, AK

The text

As transmitted.

095 
FZAK53 PAJK 171038
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
238 AM AKDT Sun Oct 17 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-180445-
Yakutat Bay-
238 AM AKDT Sun Oct 17 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY LATE TONIGHT...

.TODAY...E wind 10 kt. Seas 4 ft. 
.TONIGHT...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 6 ft building to 11 ft late. S
swell late. 
.MON...E wind 20 kt. Gusts to 35 kt in the afternoon. Seas
15 ft. S swell. 
.MON NIGHT...E wind 30 kt. Seas 16 ft. 
.TUE...E wind 25 kt. Seas 16 ft. 
.WED...E wind 15 kt. Seas 11 ft. 
.THU...E wind 15 kt. Seas 8 ft. 

$$
8 follow-up statements
014 
FZAK53 PAJK 172333
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
333 PM AKDT Sun Oct 17 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-181745-
Yakutat Bay-
333 PM AKDT Sun Oct 17 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY LATE TONIGHT THROUGH MONDAY...

.TONIGHT...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 4 ft building to 9 ft. SW swell
late. 
.MON...E wind 20 kt. Seas 14 ft. SW swell. 
.MON NIGHT...E wind 25 kt. Seas 15 ft. SW swell. 
.TUE...E wind 25 kt. Seas 16 ft. SW swell. Rain.
.TUE NIGHT...E wind 20 kt. Seas 15 ft. SW swell. Rain.
.WED...E wind 15 kt. Seas 10 ft. 
.THU...E wind 15 kt. Seas 8 ft. 
.FRI...SE wind 15 kt. Seas 10 ft. 

$$
329 
FZAK53 PAJK 181040
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
240 AM AKDT Mon Oct 18 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-190445-
Yakutat Bay-
240 AM AKDT Mon Oct 18 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY THROUGH TONIGHT...

.TODAY...E wind 20 kt. Gusts to 35 kt in the afternoon. Seas
13 ft. S swell early in the morning. 
.TONIGHT...E wind 25 kt. Seas 15 ft. S swell. 
.TUE...E wind 25 kt. Gusts to 40 kt. Seas 16 ft. S swell.
Rain in the afternoon. 
.TUE NIGHT...E wind 20 kt. Seas 16 ft. S swell. Rain.
.WED...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 10 ft. 
.THU...NE wind 10 kt. Seas 6 ft. 
.FRI...NE wind 15 kt becoming SE. Seas 11 ft. 

$$
331 
FZAK53 PAJK 182337
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
337 PM AKDT Mon Oct 18 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-191745-
Yakutat Bay-
337 PM AKDT Mon Oct 18 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY THROUGH TUESDAY...

.TONIGHT...E wind 20 kt. Seas 14 ft. S swell. 
.TUE...E wind 20 kt. Seas 15 ft. S swell. Rain in the afternoon.
.TUE NIGHT...E wind 20 kt. Gusts to 35 kt in the evening.
Seas 12 ft. S swell. Rain.
.WED...E wind 20 kt. Seas 10 ft. S swell. Rain.
.WED NIGHT...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 8 ft. S swell. Rain.
.THU...E wind 10 kt. Seas 6 ft. 
.FRI...NE wind 15 kt becoming SE. Seas 11 ft. 
.SAT...SE wind 15 kt. Seas 11 ft. 

$$
691 
FZAK53 PAJK 191135
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
335 AM AKDT Tue Oct 19 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-200545-
Yakutat Bay-
335 AM AKDT Tue Oct 19 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY THROUGH LATE TONIGHT...

.TODAY...E wind 20 kt. Gusts to 35 kt. Seas 14 ft. S swell. Rain.
.TONIGHT...E wind 20 kt. Gusts to 35 kt in the evening. Seas
12 ft. S swell. Rain.
.WED...E wind 20 kt. Seas 10 ft. S swell. Rain in the
morning. 
.WED NIGHT...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 8 ft. S swell. 
.THU...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 6 ft. 
.FRI...NE wind 15 kt becoming SE. Seas 9 ft. 
.SAT...E wind 15 kt. Seas 12 ft. 

$$
115 
FZAK53 PAJK 192344
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
344 PM AKDT Tue Oct 19 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-201745-
Yakutat Bay-
344 PM AKDT Tue Oct 19 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY THROUGH WEDNESDAY...

.TONIGHT...NE wind 20 kt. Seas 13 ft. S swell in the evening. 
Rain.
.WED...NE wind 25 kt. Seas 10 ft. S swell. Rain.
.WED NIGHT...SE wind 10 kt in the evening becoming light.
Seas 7 ft. S swell in the evening. Rain in the evening. 
.THU...NE wind 10 kt. Seas 5 ft. 
.THU NIGHT...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 6 ft. S swell. Rain.
.FRI...NE wind 15 kt becoming SE. Seas 9 ft. 
.SAT...E wind 15 kt. Seas 12 ft. 
.SUN...E wind 10 kt. Seas 9 ft. 

$$
930 
FZAK53 PAJK 201208
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
408 AM AKDT Wed Oct 20 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-210615-
Yakutat Bay-
408 AM AKDT Wed Oct 20 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY THROUGH TONIGHT...

.TODAY...E wind 20 kt. Seas 11 ft building to 15 ft in the
afternoon. S swell. Rain.
.TONIGHT...SE wind 10 kt in the evening becoming light. Seas
15 ft subsiding to 9 ft late. S swell. Rain in the evening.
.THU...NE wind 10 kt. Seas 6 ft. S swell. 
.THU NIGHT...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 6 ft. S swell. Rain.
.FRI...E wind 15 kt. Seas 10 ft. 
.SAT...E wind 15 kt. Seas 12 ft. 
.SUN...E wind 10 kt. Seas 10 ft. 

$$
767 
FZAK53 PAJK 202339
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
339 PM AKDT Wed Oct 20 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-211745-
Yakutat Bay-
339 PM AKDT Wed Oct 20 2021

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY THROUGH LATE TONIGHT...

.TONIGHT...E wind 20 kt diminishing to 15 kt late. Gusts to 35 kt
in the evening. Seas 15 ft subsiding to 9 ft late. S swell in the
evening. Rain in the evening. 
.THU...NE wind 10 kt. Seas 6 ft. 
.THU NIGHT...NE wind 15 kt. Seas 7 ft. S swell. Rain late. 
.FRI...NE wind 20 kt. Seas 10 ft. S swell. Rain.
.FRI NIGHT...E wind 25 kt. Seas 11 ft. S swell. 
.SAT...E wind 15 kt. Seas 11 ft. 
.SUN...E wind 10 kt. Seas 10 ft. 
.MON...NE wind 10 kt. Seas 6 ft. 

$$
894 
FZAK53 PAJK 211230
CWFYAK

Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay
National Weather Service Juneau AK
430 AM AKDT Thu Oct 21 2021

Coastal Waters Forecast for Yakutat Bay

Wind forecasts reflect the predominant speed and direction
expected. Sea forecasts represent the average of the highest
one-third of the combined windwave and swell height.

PKZ053-220630-
Yakutat Bay-
430 AM AKDT Thu Oct 21 2021

.TODAY...NE wind 10 kt. Seas 2 ft or less. SW swell early in the
morning. Rain early in the morning. 
.TONIGHT...NE wind 15 kt. Seas building to 3 ft late. SW swell. 
.FRI...NE wind 15 kt. Gusts to 35 kt in the afternoon. Seas
building to 4 ft in the afternoon. SW swell. Rain in the
afternoon. 
.FRI NIGHT...NE wind 25 kt. Gusts to 40 kt. Seas 5 ft. SW
swell. Rain.
.SAT...E wind 20 kt. Seas 12 ft. 
.SUN...E wind 10 kt becoming light. Seas 9 ft. 
.MON...Light winds becoming E 10 kt. Seas 6 ft. 

$$

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this small craft advisory went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Juneau, AK wrote its last area forecast discussion before this small craft advisory went out at Oct 16, 2:23 PM AKDT, 12 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 16, 2:23 PM AKDT, 12 hours 15 minutes before
Southeast Alaska Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Juneau AK
223 PM AKDT Sat Oct 16 2021

.SHORT TERM.../ Through Monday night/...The short term forecast
begins with a 500 mb trough and associated surface low moving
eastward. Some showers are possible around southern POW Island and
the Ketchikan/Metlakatla area. As the area of low pressure moves
eastward, these showers will become fewer in number and eventually
fade out. Elsewhere around the Panhandle, skies will be clear and
quite. Have kept fog in the forecast for some areas of the
panhandle due to fog forming last night, the abundance of clear
skies, and low tide will happen overnight again. Temperatures
tonight will cool to the 20s to near 30 in areas that will have
clear skies, slightly warmer 30s will be found the in south where
cloud cover will keep temperatures slightly warmer. If clouds
clear out faster than expected, temperatures could dip cooler than
expected.

Sunday will have a ridge build and pass over SE AK so Sunday is
looking like a nice day overall with most of the panhandle seeing
mostly sunny to sunny skies. That being said, clouds will slowly
increase from west to east as the next weather system and
associated front moves into the gulf. Sunday’s afternoon highs
will reach the 40s around the area.

Turning the page on the weekend and going into the next week will
bring back the active weather pattern. An area of low pressure is
expected to move into the gulf Sunday night, then sit and spin
over the gulf through Monday. This ‘sit and spin’ pattern will
slow the front’s easterly advance into the Panhandle. So rain
chances over land areas don’t really start going up until
Tuesday afternoon or later.

This slow progression inland would mean Monday will play out dry
but cloudy. Monday morning temps look to be in the 30s, thanks to
overnight cloud cover, and afternoon temps look to be in the 40s,
some near 50 degree highs are possible in the southern half of the
panhandle.

On a more specific side-note - there is evidence of breezy winds
in downtown Juneau and around Douglas Island Monday into Monday
night. It looks like a synoptically driven mountain wave, nothing
too extreme but breezy winds with stronger wind gusts have been
included in the forecast.

.LONG TERM.../Monday through Saturday as of 10PM Friday/...The
front that we have been referring to for a few days will be
located over the eastern Gulf for Monday, the beginning of the
long-term forecast period, and linger just offshore over the
eastern Gulf into the middle of next week. We have updated the
winds to storm-force along the front poised over the eastern Gulf,
just off the outer coast. Peak winds look to occur Monday
evening. Winds over the Inner Channel waters look to get up to
borderline low-end Gale near ocean entrances and to around 15 to
25 knots elsewhere over the inner channels.

The aforementioned early-week storm-force frontal system has an
impressively long fetch of deep moisture originating from around
the tropical Pacific. Model forecast PW, IVT values well over
1,000 kg/(ms), and 700mb RH values indicate that this is a rather
potent atmospheric river. Luckily, the majority of the
precipitation looks to be aimed offshore over the open Gulf waters
with this system as it lingers off the coast.

If this system ends up taking a jog in its track 100 to 200 miles
to the east and linger over the Panhandle, it will be a rather
impactful system with regard to rainfall accumulation and wind
over southeast Alaska.

Another low looks to approach the eastern Gulf from the south for
late week into the weekend. There is considerable deterministic
model and ensemble member spread this evening with the track of
this system and any system after that. Therefore, we phased to WPC
for day 7(Thursday), onward, for the winds. Currently, it looks
like it may be a Gale force low that moves northward, just off
the coast, and progressively weakens as it moves northward and
makes landfall somewhere between Anchorage and Yakutat.

As for temperatures, highs warm into the middle 40s to middle 50s
throughout the Panhandle with the highest temperatures occurring
in the southern Panhandle for the duration of the long-term
forecast period. Overnight low temperatures gradually warm to
values primarily between the lower 30s to upper 40s for the period
with the warmest temperatures being toward the south toward the
latter half of the week. This is indicated via MOS guidance, 850mb
model forecast warm temperature advection moving toward the area,
and model forecast 1,000 to 850mb thickness values over the area
for the timeframe. This occurs with the southerly push out ahead
of the aforementioned weather systems as they approach the
forecast area.

Forecast confidence is above average for the first half and below
average for the 2nd half of the long-term forecast period, due to
variations in model agreement. A GFS/NAM/ECMWF/CMC solution was
used for the gridded forecast, tonight.

&&

.AJK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
PUBLIC...None.
MARINE...Gale Warning for PKZ052-310.
     Small Craft Advisory for PKZ041>043-051.

&&

GJS/JLC

Visit us at http://www.weather.gov/Juneau

The office that day

Everything else NWS Juneau, AK issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Oct 17, 2:46 AM AKDTGale WarningAJK6 days
Oct 17, 4:14 AM AKDTSmall Craft AdvisoryAJK3 days
Oct 17, 3:58 PM AKDTSmall Craft AdvisoryAJK72 hr

Nearby

Small Craft Advisories in Alaska, 2021Every small craft advisory in 2021

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text.