Blizzard — Central Beaufort Sea Coast, Alaska

2025-02-13 to 2025-02-14 · Central Beaufort Sea Coast, Alaska

Event narrative

Strong east winds combined with heavy falling snow to produce blizzard conditions through the afternoon and into the night. Visibilities remained at or below 1/4 mile for an extended time period with wind gusts consistently at or above 40 mph at Nuiqsut (PAQT. Meanwhile at Deadhorse (PASC) winds gusted as high as 60 mph.

Wider weather episode

A low pressure system tracked northeast from the Bearing Sea into the central Yukon over the course of several days. Initially this system brought strong onshore winds to the Bearing coastline along with a mixed bag of wintry precipitation for the Seward Peninsula. As the week progressed a strong arctic high pushed onto the Arctic coastline from the north resulting in very strong easterly flow for the North Slope along with lots of blowing snow to produce widespread blizzard conditions.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1238913. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.