High Wind — Anchorage Muni To Bird Creek, Alaska

2022-10-08 · Anchorage Muni To Bird Creek, Alaska

Event narrative

A high wind warning was issued based on observations of stronger than forecast winds coming in on the Anchorage hillside on the morning of October 8th. Gap winds across

Southcentral were also outdoing expectations in places such as Gulkana and Palmer, where wind gusts peaked at around 45 to 55 mph. Some observation sites away from hillside began picking up quite a bit later in the morning, including a gust to 62 mph at the Fort Richardson Air Force Base, and near 40 mph at Anchorage International. The highest wind gust was recorded at a CWOP sensor in Potter Valley of 79 mph at about 12:30 PM. Comments coming in from Facebook included reports of trees/powerlines down in the areas that saw the highest winds.

Wider weather episode

An unusual setup atypical for classic 'Chinook' wind storms resulted in strong winds across the Anchorage upper hillside on October 8th as a low approached the mouth of the Cook Inlet and then pushed south of the Kenai Peninsula. Strong gap winds picked up in various other locations during the day on October 8th across Southcentral with deep southerly flow out ahead of this system.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1060629. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.