NWS Fairbanks has gusts of 70 mph forecast for the Richardson Highway on Friday and 65 on the Parks, peaking between 4 and 10 in the morning, and those are the two roads that carry traffic north out of Anchorage. Four hundred miles further north the same Bering Sea low does something different: Atigun Pass takes four to six inches of snow and temperatures in the upper 20s, under an advisory from the Fairbanks forecast office that runs to 4 p.m. AKDT Saturday and puts the whole of Saturday’s daylight driving inside it rather than after it. The snow is a narrow band with rain at both ends, so a driver running the Dalton end to end enters winter and comes out the far side in a few hours without ever changing roads.
The advisory was first issued at 11:13 a.m. AKDT Thursday and covers the central Brooks Range, taking in Anaktuvuk Pass, Galbraith Lake, Atigun Pass, and the Dalton Highway from Mile Post 232 to Mile Post 322, with gusts to 30 mph and blowing snow cutting visibility to half a mile or less.
NWS Fairbanks tightened it on Friday morning. The 6:10 a.m. update puts the four to six inches at or above pass level rather than across the zone, and names Atigun Pass as the main hazard. The trace of ice from Thursday’s version is gone, replaced by pockets of wintry mix.
The Snow Band Is Narrow, And There Is Rain On Both Sides Of It
The advisory covers 90 miles of a 414-mile road, and the rest of the Dalton is not remotely wintry. At Coldfoot, Mile Post 175 and roughly 1,050 feet, the forecast is rain, a 100 percent chance of precipitation, and a high near 50 on Friday. At Deadhorse, Mile Post 414 at sea level, it is scattered showers with a high near 42 on Saturday, currently sitting in fog at 32 degrees…