Blizzard and Heavy Snow in Alaska, December 11 to 12, 1999

Name: Blizzard and Heavy Snow in Alaska, December 11 to 12, 1999
Start: 1999-12-11T00:00
End: 1999-12-12T16:00
Location: Alaska

December 11 to 12, 1999 · NWS AFC · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

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 "arctic type" low moved southward through the eastern Bering Sea to a position between Saint Paul Island and Unalaska mid-afternoon Saturday as an innocuous 1014 mb center. As the system turned southeast into the 'relatively milder' waters of the North Pacific, the very cold, unstable air aloft, associated with the low, triggered rapid deepening. By 3pm Sunday the low was an intense 986 mb storm 300 miles south of Cordova.Heavy snows were observed across the Pribilofs and Alaska Peninsula as the low passed...with snowfall amounts ranging from 6 to 12 inches in less than 24 hours. Brisk north and northwest winds on the back side of the low caused blizzard conditions in blowing snow along the Alaska Peninsula from Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.

Event by event

1 heavy snow, 1 blizzard. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Pribilof Islands

When: December 11, 12:00 AM AST to December 12, 9:00 AM AST
Where: Pribilof Islands forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

Blizzard, Western Alaska Peninsula

When: December 11, 12:00 AM AST to December 12, 4:00 PM AST
Where: Western Alaska Peninsula forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

What these are

Heavy Snow: Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.
Blizzard: Sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph or more with falling or blowing snow that cuts visibility below a quarter mile for three hours or longer.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Alaska in 1999 Every state in 1999 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, December 1999

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: 5721637, 5721638.