Winter Storm — Cook Inlet, Alaska

1999-12-25 to 1999-12-27 · Cook Inlet, Alaska

Wider weather episode

Blizzard conditions were reported across much of the southwest Alaskan coast, Bristol Bay, the eastern Aleutians and Pribilofs Sunday. Wind gusts reached close to 50 mph in places, with local wind chills to 70 below calculated in the southwest interior. By Sunday morning, freezing rain was locally reported across the Bristol Bay and Kuskokwim Valley zones. Two snow machiners died in the Kuskokwim Delta on their way to Bethel, where warnings for wind chills to 75 below were in effect.Rain and freezing rain were preceded by locally heavy snows across much of the southern third of the Alaska mainland from Saturday afternoon through midday Sunday. Another derailment and fuel spill was reported north of Talkeetna. An avalanche death was reported around Hatcher Pass on December 26th.On Sunday, southeasterly winds again reached 50 to locally 90 mph around Turnagain Arm, the Upper Anchorage Hillside, parts of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and areas adjacent to Prince William Sound. Fort Richardson reached a balmy 51 F at 2:06 pm Sunday, with a peak wind of 56 mph occurring at 2:03 pm...just 3 minutes earlier. Wind gusts along the mid Anchorage hillside reached 74 mph at 4:37 pm Sunday, however further up the mountains, a 90 mph wind gust was recorded in Bear Valley.Newspaper reports indicated heavy snow took out power to 100 customers in Voznesenka and Kachemak Selo, with a small outage also reported in the east Halibut Cove area. All are areas along the shores of Kachemak Bay.The warm air that brought record breaking temperatures to a few locations, also caused black ice on secondary roads in much of Southcentral Alaska. Just prior to the warm temperatures, precipitation... which began as snow...briefly turned to freezing rain, then all rain. Wind gusts around the Cordova boat harbor again reached 60 to 70 mph Sunday and early Monday.The culprit for the hazardous weather was an intense 964 mb low situated 240 miles south of King Salmon at 9am Sunday...having moved quickly north toward the State from its postion in the northeast Pacific Saturday and Saturday night. The front associated with this low stretched almost north-south from the Susitna Valley into the eastern Pacific early Sunday morning. By 9pm Sunday, the low had weakened over 20 millibars to a 986 millibar center just south of Iliamna with the front displaced only about 180 miles furhter east. Arctic air draped around the low, roughly coinciding with the Alaska Range late Saturday, drifted north into the Tanana Valley, while re-entering Cook Inlet from the western Alaska Range early Monday.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5721661. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.