Name: High Wind in Alaska, April 8 to 10, 1998
Start: 1998-04-08T00:00
End: 1998-04-10T23:59
Location: Alaska

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 7

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS AFC wrote it up.

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.

Event by event

7 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.

High Wind, Aleutian Islands

When: April 8, 12:00 AM AST to April 10, 6:00 PM AST
Where: Aleutian Islands forecast zone
Measured: 80 kt (92 mph)

High Wind, Pribilof Islands

When: April 8, 6:00 PM AST to April 10, 6:00 PM AST
Where: Pribilof Islands forecast zone
Measured: 54 kt (62 mph)

High Wind, Western Alaska Peninsula

When: April 8, 9:00 PM AST to April 10, 6:00 PM AST
Where: Western Alaska Peninsula forecast zone
Measured: 65 kt (75 mph)

High Wind, Bristol Bay Coastal

When: April 9, 12:00 AM AST to April 10, 6:00 PM AST
Where: Bristol Bay Coastal forecast zone
Measured: 67 kt (77 mph)

High Wind, Kuskokwim Delta

When: April 9, 12:00 AM AST to April 10, 6:00 PM AST
Where: Kuskokwim Delta forecast zone
Measured: 67 kt (77 mph)

High Wind, Kodiak Island-Eastern Alaska Peninsula

When: April 9, 2:00 PM AST to April 10, 9:00 AM AST
Where: Kodiak Island-Eastern Alaska Peninsula forecast zone
Measured: 50 kt (58 mph)

High Wind, Cook Inlet

When: April 10, 12:00 AM AST to 11:59 PM AST
Where: Cook Inlet forecast zone
Measured: 60 kt (69 mph)

What these are

High Wind: Sustained non-thunderstorm winds of 40 mph or more for an hour, or gusts of 58 mph or more.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Alaska in 1998 Every state in 1998 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, April 1998

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5629471, 5629473, 5629472, 5629474, 5629475, 5629476, 5629477.