I probably blog too much about Southeast Alaska (it’s where I live), so for this post I’m going as far away from SE as one can go and still be in Alaska. Lets look at what Shemya, near the far western end of the Aleutians, and Barrow, on the peak of Alaska’s roof (and points between) have been dealing with weatherwise.
A first class Bering Sea winter storm is just getting through pummeling the far west frontier. This low easily qualified as a meteorological bomb as it deepened rapidly from Japan, across the Aleutians, up the western edge of the Bering Sea and is now weakening northwest of Barrow. Click on the map below to open an animated GIF of the storm’s progress.
Here’s some of the weather brought by this storm, listed from south to north:
Shemya: “The rock” was hit early and hard and right on the tail of another storm. Late on Tuesday the 15th south winds picked up and were gusting to over 50 mph (80 km/hr) most of the night, all of Wednesday, and into Thursday morning. The storm had a peak gust of 75 mph (121 km/hr) in the wee hours of the 16th. Intermittent precipitation oscillated between rain and snow.
The upper air sounding for Tuesday afternoon at Shemya. Note the strong winds at all levels with 135 kts (150 mph) jet stream winds at around 10 km (33,000 ft). Soundings were missing during the highest winds. Most likely the winds were just too strong for even the Shemya techs to successfully launch a 6 foot (2 m) diameter weather balloon.
The Pribilof Islands: The mid-Bering island group was far enough east to miss the strongest winds, but did have plenty of southerly weather with 30-45 mph (50-70 km/hr) gusts and rain and/or wet snow. This was followed by the cooler westerly flow around the back side of the low, dropping temperatures below freezing and bringing snow and a little drifting and blowing snow.
St. Lawrence Island: Savoonga had around 15 hours Thursday (2/17) with visibilities in snow and blowing snow less than a mile (1/4 mile or 400 meters much of the time) and winds sustained at 30-40 mph (50-65 km/hr) with gusts as high as 69 mph (111 km/hr). Gambell got off a little easier.
Nome: Conditions in the Gold Rush City were much less severe than most in the region. There was some snow and blowing snow and wind gusting to around 40 mph (65 km/hr), but the worst only lasted a few hours on Thursday. Currently however, a secondary low and front behind the first is giving them a 2nd act: Winds have switched back to southeast and increased and snow and blowing snow are back. (see the satellite image below)
Secondary front bullseyeing Nome.
Kotzebue: A slightly subdued version of the Savoonga experience, but with temperatures quite bit colder: from the low single digits (F) (-15 C) on Wednesday rising to the mid 20s F (~-4 C) Thursday compared to 20s and 30s F (~-5 to +5 C) for Savoonga. That kept wind chills down around 15-25 below zero F (-25 to -30 C) through early Thursday.
Point Hope: Fared about the same as Savoonga, but with not quite as high of gusts.
Point Lay: The airport web cam for Friday mid-day tells the story (compare with stock clear day photo on the right). The low visibility is most certainly caused, as in the other towns, by snow and blowing snow, not fog. Even though many observations report fog during snow storms, it is most often not present — a topic for the future.
Barrow: By the time this storm got this far north it was weakening, but only slowly. The top of America had winds gusting to around 45 mph (70 km/hr) with visibility around 1/4 mile (400 m) in heavy snow and blowing snow as of the time of this writing Friday afternoon. The temperature, which had been well below zero F (<-18 C) a couple days ago had risen to +16 F (-9 C) around midnight Friday, but has been dropping again as the low tracks into the Arctic Ocean, dragging arctic air around its south side.
Here’s the last 24 hours of observation at Barrow (times are in ADT):
Site M/A Day Time Sky Conditions VIS Weather Temp DP Wind(kt) Alt RH Chill Peak
PABR AA 17 2153 SCT090 BKN150 9 12 8 18018 929 84% -7 PABR AA 17 2253 BKN100 5 BS- 13 11 18020 927 91% -6 PABR AA 17 2353 SCT095 OVC150 4 BS- 13 11 19018G26 925 91% -5 27 PABR AP 18 0000 CLR 1 3/4 BS- 12 10 19018G26 925 91% -7 PABR AP 18 0021 BKN038 BKN050 5 BS- 16 12 20017 925 84% -1 PABR AA 18 0053 BKN032 OVC041 5 BS- 16 14 20018 925 92% -1 28 PABR AP 18 0115 FEW041 BKN049 OVC090 2 1/2 BS- 16 12 20019 924 84% -2 PABR AP 18 0128 BKN060 BKN085 5 BS- 16 14 20020 923 92% -2 PABR AA 18 0153 SCT070 5 BS- 16 13 19018 923 88% -1 PABR AA 18 0253 FEW080 OVC200 5 BS- 15 12 20020 922 88% -3 PABR MA 18 0353 BKN075 5 BS- 14 11 19016G22 922 88% -3 PABR AA 18 0453 SCT075 7 11 8 19018 921 87% -8 PABR AP 18 0551 BKN080 3/4 BS-F 12 10 19018 921 91% -7 PABR AA 18 0553 BKN080 1/2 BSF 13 11 19020G23 921 91% -6 PABR AP 18 0555 BKN021 BKN035 OVC045 1/4 BSF 14 12 20020G25 921 92% -5 PABR AP 18 0604 BKN026 BKN036 OVC047 3 BS-F 14 12 20020 921 92% -5 PABR AP 18 0613 BKN013 OVC036 1/4 S+BS 14 12 20018 922 92% -4 PABR AA 18 0653 BKN037 OVC048 1 S-BS- 13 12 21018 922 96% -5 26 PABR AP 18 0732 OVC075 3 BS- 10 9 21020 923 96% -10 PABR AA 18 0753 OVC075 1 1/2 BS- 11 9 22022 922 91% -9 PABR AA 18 0853 BKN075 3 BS- 8 6 21021 923 91% -13 PABR AP 18 0925 BKN075 1/2 SBS 10 9 21025G30 924 96% -12 30 PABR AP 18 0938 BKN075 1/4 S+BS 10 9 21027G32 924 96% -13 32 PABR AA 18 0953 BKN075 1/4 S+BS 11 10 22024 924 96% -10 32 PABR AP 18 1000 BKN007 OVC019 1/4 S+BS 10 10 23026 924 100% -12 30 PABR AP 18 1039 BKN006 OVC026 1/4 S+BS 10 9 24024G34 926 96% -12 36 PABR AP 18 1043 BKN010 OVC026 1/4 S+BS 10 9 23027G34 926 96% -13 36 PABR AP 18 1122 BKN010 BKN019 OVC028 1/4 S+BS 9 7 24027G34 928 91% -14 34 PABR AA 18 1153 BKN014 OVC019 1/4 S+BS 8 5 24025G33 930 87% -15 34 PABR AP 18 1201 BKN014 OVC019 1/4 S+BS 7 5 24026G33 931 91% -16 33 PABR AP 18 1217 BKN014 OVC038 1/4 S+BS 7 5 24024G34 931 91% -16 34 PABR AP 18 1232 BKN014 OVC038 1/4 S+BS 7 3 24031G38 932 83% -18 38 PABR AA 18 1253 BKN009 OVC021 1/4 S+BS 6 3 24028G34 933 87% -18 38 PABR AA 18 1353 BKN015 OVC025 1 BS- 2 -2 25022G30 938 83% -22 35 PABR AA 18 1453 OVC021 3/4 S-BS- 0 -4 26022G31 941 83% -24 34 PABR AP 18 1525 BKN025 BKN032 1/4 S+BS 0 -6 26026G33 941 75% -26 33 PABR AP 18 1544 BKN012 OVC030 1/4 S+BS 0 -4 25024G31 943 83% -25 33 PABR AA 18 1553 BKN012 BKN021 OVC035 1/4 S+BS -1 -5 25024G33 944 83% -26 33 PABR AP 18 1620 BKN012 BKN021 OVC050 1/2 SBS 0 -6 25023G32 945 75% -25 32 PABR AP 18 1637 BKN012 BKN021 OVC050 1/4 S+BS 0 -6 25029G34 946 75% -27 38 PABR AA 18 1653 VV014 1/2 SBS -1 -5 25021 947 83% -25 38 PABR AP 18 1728 BKN025 BKN033 1/2 BS 0 -6 26020 948 75% -23 33 PABR AA 18 1753 BKN047 BKN130 2 BS- 0 -7 25020G30 949 71% -23 33 PABR AP 18 1804 SCT055 BKN130 4 BS- 0 -8 24020G26 949 68% -23 26 PABR AA 18 1953 FEW055 BKN150 10 -2 -9 25018 952 71% -25
