High Wind — Eastern Aleutians, Alaska

2024-09-17 · Eastern Aleutians, Alaska

Event narrative

A marine exchange observation (site AKXA2 in Akutan) reported a gust to 82 mph at about 2 PM AKST, then later reported a gust to 93 mph about an hour later shortly before 3 pm AKST. The legitimacy of the higher end gust, however, was not able to be verified by any other sources nearby.

Wider weather episode

A strong low developed over the southern Bering Sea late on September 16th and intensified to storm force with hurricane force gusts as the moved north of the Pribilof Islands on the morning of September 17th. Numerical model guidance was slow to catch on to the rapid intensification of this system, and both sustained winds and gusts around the low peaked higher than most model projections leading up to the event. Gusts peaked at or above hurricane force across the Pribilof Islands as the low passed to the north early on the 17th, as well as over parts of the far eastern Aleutians and southern Alaska Peninsula as the low center turned to the east towards Bristol Bay later on the same day.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1208036. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.