High Wind and Cold in Alaska, March 12 to 13, 1999

An intense storm deepened to 960mbs and curved into the Komandorskiye Islands of Russia Friday afternoon. The storm then turned eastward and raked the Aleutians with strong westerly winds Saturday. The front associated with the storm, elongated east northeast through the Aleutians and extreme southern Bering weakening along a line from just south of Saint Matthew Island to Cape Newenham to near Port Heiden Saturday afternoon.Initially, very strong southeast winds preceded the front across the Aleutians and extreme southwest Bering Sea...however as the front elongated out of the storm...winds in advance of the front were less and less potent. Adjusted AWOS/ASOS prefrontal winds reached 56 mph at Adak Friday, 66 mph at Saint George Island Friday evening, 65 mph at Cold Bay Saturday morning and 81 mph at Cape Newenham (where winds are accelerated by terrain). Further east, prefrontal wind gusts of 40 mph were reported around Kodiak Island. Adjusted ASOS wind gusts of 62 mph were reported at the Portage Visitor Center, just east of Turnagain Arm, and 51mph along the Upper Anchorage Hillside at the Rabbit Creek RAWS.Very strong winds were recorded along the south and west quadrants of the low, with gusts hitting 82 mph at Adak Sunday between 6pm and 7pm.In addition to the strong winds, wind chills close to 60 below zero were calculated at several stations along the Kuskokwim Delta and extreme southwest corner of the Kuskokwim Valley. Heavy snows were reported in the vicinity of the front all the way from the Aleutians and Pribilofs into portions of Southcentral Alaska. Winds combined with snow and blowing snow to produce blizzards across the Aleutians, Alaska Peninsula and local areas of Cook Inlet around Turnagain Arm.