A powerful storm carrying the remnants of former Typhoon Champi swept across Southcentral Alaska overnight into Friday, whipping the Anchorage hillsides with high winds, burying mountain passes in heavy snow and soaking the coast with several inches of rain.
The National Weather Service in Anchorage described the system as “a warm, wet, and windy storm system” in its Thursday afternoon forecast discussion. A front associated with what remained of Champi, then centered in the Bering Sea, “will bring no shortage of weather as it moves across Southcentral,” forecasters wrote.
A high wind warning remained in effect until 11 a.m. AKDT (2 p.m. CDT) Friday for the Anchorage and Eagle River hillsides, mainly above 1,000 feet. The weather service forecast southeast winds of 30 to 45 mph with gusts of 60 to 75 mph, with the strongest gusts likely in the Bear Valley, Potter Creek and Rabbit Creek areas…