NWS Anchorage Land Based Forecast Changes

To be implemented March 19, 2025

Background

The National Weather Service (NWS) issues messages for geographical areas that Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) pre-determine, called forecast zones. For land-based forecast zones, these are referred to as “public forecast zones.” This includes fire weather zones. In the past, NWS WFO Anchorage has hosted 18 public forecast zones that grouped numerous microclimates together, combined alerting needs, and crossed Borough and Census Boundaries. This led to a blending of forecast needs and impacts, and to overalerting of regions to impacts not realized in some local communities.

In an effort to redefine our public forecast zones, and be more in-tune with regional and local forecast needs, our forecast office worked closely with local community leadership and incorporated climatology and alert needs in the implementation of our new public forecast areas. With this September’s forecast zone upgrade, NWS WFO Anchorage will host 51 forecast zones for both public and fire weather forecasts, more than double the number of zones previously forecast for. This will provide a vast improvement in service to those who live across Southern Alaska.

Due to the scope of these changes, all forecast and fire zone names and numbers in Southern Alaska will change. For the complete list of anticipated changes to forecast zone names and numbers, please refer to the  Service Change Notice .

Current Forecast Zones

The NWS issues forecasts, watches, and warnings for public, fire and marine weather by zones. Local effects such as elevation or proximity to large bodies of water can cause highly variable weather across zones.

More on Dissemination

One of the ways the National Weather Service disseminates information is by broadcasting official watches, warnings, forecasts, and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR). This message alerting system functions based on areas defined by borough, census area, municipality, county and parish boundaries.

In hopes of providing quality public support, NWS Alaska Region has been working on a multi-year, multi-phase effort to align forecast and fire zone boundaries with borough, municipality, and census area boundaries. This effort will facilitate the reduction of over-alerting by systems that define geographic areas in terms of cities, boroughs, municipalities, and census areas. With the implementation of these forecast zone changes by WFO Anchorage in March 2025, there will be no overlap between forecast zones and county equivalents in Alaska. Fire weather zones will match the public zones.

Large Scale Comparison of Current and New Forecast Zones

WFO Anchorage current public zones are on the left, with the new public/fire zones to be implemented in September on the right. The pink dotted line identifies the County Equivalent areas in Alaska. Note many of the County Equivalent and current public zone lines do not match. These have been synced in the new zones which will mitigate overalerting issues.

Zoomed in Views around the WFO Anchorage Forecast Area

Closer view of zone changes in Southwest Alaska. Zoom in for more details. Pan to move around the map.

Closer view of zone changes in the Aleutians. Zoom in for more details. Pan to move around the map.

Closer view of changes along the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island. Zoom in for more details. Pan to move around the map.

Closer view of changes in the Anchorage area and other portions of South-Central Alaska. Zoom in for more details. Pan to move around the map.

WFO Anchorage Forecast Area New Public and Fire Zone Numbers and their Names

Southcentral Alaska Domain ----------------------------------

AKZ701: Anchorage / Eagle River (lower elevations) AKZ702: Anchorage Hillside / Upper Eagle River AKZ703: Turnagain Arm AKZ704: Portage AKZ711: Lower Matanuska Valley AKZ712: Hatcher Pass AKZ713: Sutton/Upper Matanuska Valley AKZ714: Eureka / Tahneta Pass AKZ721: Southern Kachemak Bay AKZ722: Southwest Kenai Peninsula AKZ723: Northwest Kenai Peninsula AKZ724: Skilak Lake / Eastern Sterling Highway AKZ725: Southern Kenai Mountains / Seward AKZ726: Interior Kenai Peninsula AKZ727: Turnagain Pass AKZ728: West Prince William Sound and Whittier AKZ729: Tyonek AKZ731: Valdez AKZ732: Thompson Pass AKZ735: Cordova AKZ741: Northern Copper Valley AKZ742: Western Copper Valley AKZ743: Central Copper Valley AKZ744: Ernestine AKZ745: Western Susitna Valley AKZ746: Southern Susitna Valley AKZ747: Central Susitna Valley AKZ748: Northern Susitna Valley AKZ749: Southern Copper Valley AKZ750: Tok Cutoff AKZ751: McCarthy AKZ771: Kodiak Island Northeast AKZ772: Kodiak Island Southwest Southwest Alaska Domain ----------------------------------

  • AKZ752: Kuskokwim Valley West
  • AKZ753: Kuskokwim Valley East
  • AKZ754: Lime Village
  • AKZ755: Kuskokwim Delta Coast and Nunivak Island
  • AKZ756: Inland Kuskokwim Delta
  • AKZ757: Western Capes
  • AKZ763: Bristol Bay Borough (Naknek and King Salmon)
  • AKZ764: Northern Bristol Bay Coast
  • AKZ765: Inland Bristol Bay
  • AKZ766: Lake Iliamna / Nila Vena / Nanvarpak
  • AKZ761: Central Alaska Peninsula
  • AKZ762: Northern Alaska Peninsula
  • AKZ773: Chignik
  • AKZ781: Alaska Peninsula
  • AKZ785: Eastern Aleutians
  • AKZ787: Central Aleutians
  • AKZ791: Western Aleutians
  • AKZ795: Pribilof Islands

Thank you for viewing

For additional information on the WFO Anchorage zone changes, including reasoning, please contact Aviva Braun (aviva.braun@noaa.gov)

A web page with static graphics can also be found  here .

Created By

Tim Steffen (timothy.steffen@noaa.gov)

Samuel Shea (samuel.shea@noaa.gov)