High Wind — Kodiak Island-eastern Alaska Peninsula, Alaska

1998-04-09 to 1998-04-10 · Kodiak Island-eastern Alaska Peninsula, Alaska

Wider weather episode

An intense low moved northeastward into the Bering Sea late Wednesday and early Thursday. By Thursday late morning, the low had moved into the central Bering Sea as a 956mb center with a sharp trof extending south and southwest from the center. By Friday morning the storm had begun to weaken just northwest of Saint Matthew Island. The low carried a strong front ahead of it, lying in an arc through Saint Matthew Island and Cape Sarichef (just west of Cold Bay) at 9am Thursday. By 4am Friday, the front had begun to weaken slightly, extending in a long arc through the Chukotsk Peninsula through Unalakleet and King Salmon. Very strong south and southeasterly winds preceded the front...with gusts to 92 mph reported by the anchored tug Sydney Foss near Akutan and 62 mph at the Dutch Harbor airport late Wednesday and Thursday. Shemya and Adak both reported wind gusts to 74 mph as the trof (extending south from the storm) moved by. Prefrontal winds between 10 and 11am Thursday reached 75 mph at Cold Bay along the Alaska Peninsula, 55 mph across the Pribilofs and 77mph along the coasts of the Kuskokwim Delta and extreme western Bristol Bay late Thursday morning. Prefrontal winds also reached at least 58 mph around Kodiak Island Thursday evening and 69 mph through Turnagain Arm Friday morning. Winds along the south quadrant of the low gusted to 62 mph across the Pribilofs...while further out in the Bering, wind gusts reached 71 mph at buoy 46035 at 10 pm Thursday with seas up to 38 feet.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5629476. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.