Name: Blizzard in Alaska, December 3 to 4, 2009
Start: 2009-12-03T19:11
End: 2009-12-04T00:30
Location: Alaska

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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 north Pacific storm moved into the central Bering Sea overnight December 3rd. This storm produced high wind across the Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula to the Pribilof Islands as well as snow and blizzard conditions in the Pribilof Islands.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Anchorage, AK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 3, 12:23 PM AKST, 6 hours 48 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 3, 12:23 PM AKST, 6 hours 48 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
SOUTHCENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST ALASKA
1223 PM AKST THU DEC 3 2009

.MODEL DISCUSSION...FOCUS FOR NEXT 4 DAYS IS ON THE ALEUTIANS AND
BERING SEA AS A SERIES OF VERY POWERFUL STORMS MOVE ACROSS THE
REGION. GFS AND NAM IN PRETTY GOOD AGREEMENT ON THE FIRST ALEUTIAN
SYSTEM WHICH WILL START TO IMPACT THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN ALEUTIANS
THIS AFTERNOON. THROUGH FRI NIGHT MODELS IN STEP ON POSITION AND
DEPTH
BUT ON SAT THE NAM DEEPENS ANOTHER 8 MB OVER THE GFS AS MAIN CENTER
LIES IN THE SOUTHERN BERING SEA. WOULD TEND TO GO WITH GFS SOLUTION.
YET ANOTHER POWERFUL LOW (940S) MOVES NEAR THE CENTRAL ALEUTIANS SAT
NIGHT BUT STALLS NEAR 50N 170W SUN AND MON.

.ANALYSIS AND UPPER LEVELS...MAIN UPPER LEVEL FEATURE IS THE
DEVELOPMENT OF AN HIGH AMPLITUDE SE TO NW ORIENTED RIDGE OVER THE
GULF OF ALASKA WHICH PERSISTS THROUGH MON.  THE AFOREMENTIONED LOWS
MOVE UP THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIDGE INSTEAD OF MOVING EASTWARD.
SURFACE HIGH PRESSURE WILL DEVELOP OVER THE INTERIOR ON FRI.

.SHORT TERM FORECAST...EASTERN ALEUTIANS AND AK PEN CAN EXPECT VERY
STRONG WINDS AND PLENTY OF PRECIP...SHOULD START OFF AS SNOW THU
NIGHT AND FRI MORNING BUT CHANGING OVER TO RAIN BY MIDDAY ON FRIDAY.
RAIN COULD BE HEAVY AT TIMES ESPECIALLY ALONG THE AK PEN WITH
CONSIDERABLE UPSLOPE FLOW.  BY FRI NIGHT FRONT IS OVER KODIAK ISLAND
BRING VERY STRONG WINDS AND RAIN.  WOULD EXPECT SOME LOCALIZED HIGH
WATER PROBLEMS BY LATE IN THE WEEKEND DUE TO RAIN AND SNOW MELT ALONG
THE AK PEN AND POSSIBLY KODIAK IS. ALSO EXPECTING THE FRONT TO MOVE
INTO BRISTOL BAY AND KUSKO DELTA FRI NIGHT...WINDY WITH SNOW MIXED
WITH RAIN ON SAT IN COASTAL LOCALES.

.LONG TERM FORECAST...SECOND MAJOR SYSTEM ON SUN WILL ONCE AGAIN
GENERATE VERY STRONG WINDS AND PRECIP FROM THE CENTRAL ALEUTIANS
EASTWARD TO KODIAK ISLAND. AT THE CURRENT TIME THIS WOULD APPEAR TO
BE A REPEAT OF THE FIRST STORM.

.AER/ALU...WATCH/WARNING SUMMARY
PUBLIC...HIGH WIND WARNINGS: 187 185 181  HIGH SURF: 181 171
MARINE...STRMS AND GALES IN ALL WEST ZONES
FIRE WEATHER...NOT AND ISSUE AT PRESENT

JMP DEC 09

Event by event

1 blizzard. Local standard time, as filed.

Blizzard, Pribilof Islands

When: December 3, 7:11 PM AKST to December 4, 12:30 AM AKST
Where: Pribilof Islands forecast zone
Reported by: ASOS

What these are

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

More

Every storm in Alaska in 2009 Every state in 2009 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, December 2009

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: 198428.