Last weekend’s blizzard caused the Haines Borough School District to close Monday after 16 inches of snow fell in less than 24 hours–a record high for daily snowfall according to National Weather Service data.

School superintendent Roy Getchell said he made the call around 5:45 a.m. Monday morning after speaking with local Department of Transportation staff and taking into account blizzard warnings from the National Weather Service.

“What made this unique is that DOT shared that it was very treacherous and we had an active blizzard warning, which is different than a winter storm warning,” Getchell said.

Snowfall the first few days of this month is already nearing average total snowfall for November, around 23 inches, according to weather service.

Colder arctic air, originally expected to track farther north, stayed in northern Lynn Canal, said NOAA forecaster Kimberly Vaughan.

NOAA Juneau called for blizzard conditions over the weekend and Haines received the bulk of the snow while the southern panhandle, including Hoonah, Petersburg and Prince of Wales Island saw rain and warmer temperatures. Downtown Juneau received 4.6 inches of snow and Auke Bay got 9 inches.

“It was a plethora of weather elements going on in the last 24 hours for sure,” Vaughan said. “It was interesting because we had temps in the mid-20s here in the Juneau area while Petersburg was about 54 degrees. That’s strikingly different.”

Vaughan said cold air and partly sunny skies are expected through the end of the week. An increased chance of snow and warmer temperatures is forecasted to begin on Sunday.

“By Saturday night we might start seeing some chance of some snow and Sunday an increased chance as well,” Vaughan said. “With those sunny days, we are still looking for temps to stay cold. Looking at the potential of low temperatures overnight in the teens, highs in the twenties.”

Long term, given that the region is in a La Nina year, Lynn Canal is expected to have increased chances for warmer temperatures and drier conditions, based on predictions from the Climate Prediction Center, Vaughan said.

“But the La Nina year was also the same year Juneau broke their all-time record snowfall. There’s nothing that really strongly leans us toward this is going to be a colder winter or warmer winter. It’s a slight tilt to warmer than normal.”