High Wind — Chukchi Sea Coast, Alaska

2022-10-05 to 2022-10-07 · Chukchi Sea Coast, Alaska

Event narrative

High winds developed along the Chukchi Sea Coast on the evening of October 5th and continued into the morning of the 7th. Red Dog Dock recorded gusts as high as 76 mph while Point Hope reported gusts as high as 69 mph. In the village of Kivalina, the tin roof on the NANA (Alaska Native Corporation) building was blown off. In addition strong winds in Kivalina destroyed a small hangar and caused windows in several buildings to break. In the village of Point Hope, the wind blew over a large fuel storage tank.

Wider weather episode

On October 5th, 2022 a strong area of low pressure moved over far eastern Russia, reaching the Chukchi Sea late in the evening on the 5th. The low strengthened to 955 millibars as it passed over the Wrangel Island in the early morning hours on the 6th of October. The low slowly moved to the northwest and weakened as it moved across the Chukchi Sea through the night of October 7th. A front associated with the low passed over St. Lawrence Island on the afternoon of the 5th. This front continued to push east across the Chukchi Sea the night of the 5th and Arctic Coast of Alaska on the 6th. The strongest winds were associated with this front. Winds became more southwesterly behind the front, causing water levels to rise from the Seward Peninsula to Utqiagvik. A second front moved from west to east across the Arctic Coast on the 7th, with the southwest winds shifting to become westerly behind the front.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1058940. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.