High Wind — Lower Yukon River, Alaska

2025-10-11 to 2025-10-12 · Lower Yukon River, Alaska

Event narrative

On October 11th at 2357AKST, the Reindeer River RAWS station (RDRA2), located 16 miles south-southeast of Pilot Station, recorded sustained winds of 37 mph gusting to 60 mph. Peak winds were recorded at 0557AKST on October 12th with sustained winds of 55 mph gusting to 86 mph. On October 12th at 0649AKST, the St. Mary's-Pitkas Point Airport AWOS (PASM) measured a wind gust of 76 mph. On October 12th at 0625AKST, the USArray fixed Vaisala WXT536 weather station operated by the Alaska Earthquake Center at Wolf Creek Mountain (K15KX), located 38 miles northeast of Russian Mission, recorded a wind gust of 79 mph. Wind damage was reported at Pilot Station and St. Mary's.

Wider weather episode

Ex-Typhoon Halong brought high winds and severe coastal flooding to the West Coast of Alaska from October 11th to 13th. The storm caused severe coastal flooding in the Kuskokwim River Delta and high water levels extending north to the Yukon River Delta. These coastal areas all reported high wind gusts near or upwards of 70 to 80 mph. Inland areas as well as the Eastern Norton Sound saw impacts from damaging winds, with gusts upwards of 50 to 60 mph, causing damage to roofs and siding, downed trees, and damaged power lines leading to outages. Significant wave activity on the Koyukuk River near Huslia damaged, swept away, or sank several boats.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1296730. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.