High Wind — Aleutian Islands, Alaska

2000-11-14 to 2000-11-16 · Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Wider weather episode

A moderate 970 mb low moved toward the central Aleutians from the extreme north-central Pacific late Monday. By late Tuesday morning the low was located 90 miles southeast of Adak with its front in an arc approaching the eastern third of the Aleutians. The low then began to weaken, moving to just northeast of Dutch Harbor as a 976 mb center late Wednesday morning and to near Chignik early Thursday as a 987 mb center. The front elongated both north and east, gradually losing strength, extending in an arc from a low in the north-central Bering to Kodiak Island and southeast early Thursday.Strong southeast winds preceded the front. Gusts at the Dutch Harbor Spit peaked at 100 mph at 1 pm Tuesday just in advance of the front, diminishing below 60 mph by 6pm Tuesday. Brisk westerly winds were observed on the back side of the low. Westerly gusts reached 77 mph at Atka in the central Aleutians late Tuesday and 76 mph at the Dutch Harbor Spit at 12:30 am Thursday. Although this was the last observation of 60+ winds there from this low, the break was very short before the next big blow.Winds briefly gusted to 61 mph at the Portage Visitor Center between 5 and 6 am, and 60 mph at the Wasilla Fire station between 8 and 9 am, Thursday.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5161312. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.