Winter Storm — Cape Decision To Salisbury Sound Coastal Area, Alaska

2018-02-01 to 2018-02-02 · Cape Decision To Salisbury Sound Coastal Area, Alaska

Event narrative

We could not get any measurements for Southern Baranof Island, but radar looked like Port Alexander got dumped on during the morning of 2/2. Happy Ground Hog's Day. Gusts 40 mph could have caused blizzard-like conditions on 2/2.

Wider weather episode

On the first day of February, a strong area of frontogenesis developed with the front moving north into the southern panhandle. N-NE-E outflow wind will kept temperatures cold enough on the north side of the front to allow snow to get up to southern Admiralty Island. Increases in 850mb temps above freezing late Thursday night into Friday morning made the rain/snow line critical and difficult to forecast. Significant snowfall occurred for Port Alexander, Petersburg, Wrangell, Point Baker and Coffman Cove. Ketchikan had wintry mix. No damage was reports and the impact was snow removal.

Some places could have had blizzard conditions with this event due to strong outflow. Port Alex had gusts of around 40kt during bands of snow. Highest snow falls extended a little farther south then expected. Petersburg, to Whale Pass to Thorne Bay, and Coffman Cove got buried. lighter amounts elsewhere. Snow changed to rain early in Ketchikan and overnight at Kasaan limited snow amounts to 1 to 2 inches there. Hyder still snowing as of 11 am 2/2 with 7 inches accumulated so far, and up to 9.3 inches as of 730 pm. Unknown about Port Alexander and Kake.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 738514. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.