High Wind in Alaska, April 23 to 26, 1999

Weakening low pressure in the extreme northern Gulf of Alaska, coupled with building high pressure across the eastern Aleutians and western entrance to Bristol Bay initiated a several day blow for many areas near and southeast of the Alaska Range. Initially the northwest winds were very localized.A ship located adjacent to Wide Bay (on the Pacific side of the Upper Alaska Peninsula), recorded local gusts of 92 mph from the northwest Friday morning.A modified arctic front, moving into the Chugach Range and through the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island Saturday, brought more widespread northwest winds in its wake.Adjusted ASOS wind gusts reached 50 mph at Kodiak at 2 pm Saturday, however gusts of 55 mph were recorded at the Booth Lake remote site between 8 pm and 9 pm the same day. It wasn't until late Monday morning before wind gusts diminished below 40 mph on the Island and across adjacent waters.Gusts of 50 mph were reported at the Iliamna ASOS site Sunday just after noon. Brisk northwest winds were also reported at the Cape Newenham AWOS site 24 hours earlier. ASOS adjusted north wind gusts reached 61 mph at Seward between 7:29 am and 8:00 am Sunday. These strong gusts either picked up loose snow or dust Sunday morning, causing an erroneous weather report of 9 mile visibility in light snow under clear skies (below 12,000 ft) on the 5:09 am, 5:17 am and 7:53 am observations from the ASOS. Wind gusts finally began to diminish late Sunday afternoon. Wind gusts at Whittier reached 40 mph off the Whittier Glacier several times both Saturday and Sunday mornings ...diminishing later Sunday afternoon. Northerly winds around Valdez briefly kicked up around Mineral Creek late Saturday night through Sunday morning, peaking at 45 mph between 2 am and 3 am Sunday.