Name: Coastal Flood in Alaska, February 24 to 26, 2011
Start: 2011-02-24T08:00
End: 2011-02-26T13:00
Location: Alaska

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 3

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 AFG wrote it up.

A 968 mb low in the central Bering Sea at 2100AKST on the 23rd moved to the Gulf of Anadyr as a 976 mb low at 0900AKST on the 24th. The low tracked to the northeast as a 978 mb low in the southern Chukchi Sea at 2100AKST on the 24th. The low then tracked to the east and passed just south of Banks Island as a 980 mb low by 0900AKST on the 25th. The storm produced areas of coastal flooding along parts of the northwest coast of Alaska.

Zone 207: At least 32 musk oxen perished, likely due to coastal flooding in the Bering Sea Land Bridge National Preserve along the northern Seward Peninsula Coast. The mush oxen were found about three weeks after the storm by researchers in the area. There are no tide gages along the northern Seward Peninsula, but based on the gage at Red Dog Dock on the other side of the Kotzebue Sound the inundation likely occurred on the 24th. At Shishmaref, overflow from the lagoon side of the village came close to a number of homes, but there was no flooding.

Zone 209: The storm caused a surge of water under the sea ice in the Kotzebue Sound. The surge lifted and broke shore ice along the coast. The water levels rose |and reached the edge of Front Street in Kotzebue around 1200AKST on the 25th. The water flowed into other low lying areas around the city and the water flowed underneath some buildings along the shore. The buildings are all built on pilings and they did not flood, but access to some of the buildings was inundated by water. The water levels receded by 1300AKST on the 26th. There was no significant damage reported as a result of the flooding.

Zone 210: At Deering, high water was noted on both the Inmachuk River and along the Kotzebue Sound. There was water across the road from the village to the airstrip. The runway at the airstrip was washed out due to the inundation of water from the Kotzebue Sound. At Buckland, water backed up along the Buckland River; however, there were no reports of flooding.

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 Fairbanks, AK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 24, 7:14 AM AKST, 46 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 24, 7:14 AM AKST, 46 minutes before

NORTHERN ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FAIRBANKS AK
714 AM AKST THU FEB 24 2011

.DISCUSSION...
THE COMPUTER WEATHER FORECAST MODELS ARE IN CLOSE AGREEMENT THIS
MORNING. THE LOW NOW IN THE EAST BEAUFORT SEA IS WEAKENING...BUT
STRONG HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE MAINLAND CONTINUES TO PRODUCE STRONG
WIND ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE LOW.

THE STORM NOW IN THE CENTRAL BERING SEA IS EXPECTED TO BRING HEAVY
WINDS...EXTENSIVE PRECIPITATION AND WIDESPREAD BLOWING SNOW AND
SOME BLIZZARD CONDITIONS TO ALL OF NORTHERN ALASKA OUTSIDE OF ZONES
223 AND 226...IN THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE INTERIOR. THESE MAY
HAVE HEAVY SNOW FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY AS FAIRLY STRONG UPSLOPE
FLOW FROM THE NORTH DEVELOPS OVER THESE ZONES.

SATELLITE IMAGERY OVERNIGHT AND THIS MORNING SHOWS A HUGE AREA OF
VERY THICK CLOUDS OVER THE FRONTAL SYSTEM THAT THE STORM IN THE
CENTRAL BERING SEA HAS BROUGHT UP TO WESTERN ALASKA AND TO THE
EASTERN BERING SEA. THIS IS ONE INDICATION OF THE INTENSITY OF THE
INCOMING WEATHER.

THE INFLOW OF MID LATITUDE MARITIME FLOW HAS ORIGINATED FROM
AROUND TO 20 DEGREES NORTH LATITUDE. THIS STRONG INFLUX HAS DRIVEN
THE ARCTIC AIR NORTH OF BERING STRAIT AND UP OVER THE SOUTHWEST
MAINLAND. THIS...ALONG WITH WELL BELOW ZERO TEMPERATURES OVER
SIBERIA...IS A PATTERN FOR HEAVY WINTER WEATHER IN NORTHERN
ALASKA. THIS STORM IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE MORE EXTENSIVE AND
HEAVIER WEATHER THAN ITS PREDECESSOR.

UNLIKE THE HEAVY SNOW ON THE 20TH AND 21ST...THE SNOW IN THE
INTERIOR WILL BE DIRECTLY ACCOMPANIED BY BRISK SOUTHWEST WINDS
TODAY AND TONIGHT. THESE WINDS WILL SHIFT TO THE NORTHWEST ON
FRIDAY. EXTENSIVE BLOWING SNOW IS EXPECTED NEARLY EVERYWHERE IN
THE REALM.

THE GFS FORECASTS THE ROUGH WEATHER TO END ON SATURDAY...AND THE
MEDIUM RANGE MODELS FORECAST A LARGE HIGH PRESSURE SYSTEM ALOFT TO
BUILD OVER THE BERING SEA STARTING SATURDAY...WHERE IT IS EXPECTED
TO HOLD PLACE THROUGH NEXT SATURDAY MARCH 5.

&&

.AFG WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WINTER STORM WARNING FOR AKZ205-AKZ207-AKZ208-AKZ209-AKZ210-
AKZ211-AKZ212-AKZ213-AKZ214-AKZ215-AKZ216-AKZ217-AKZ218-AKZ219-
AKZ220-AKZ221-AKZ225-AKZ227.

BLIZZARD WARNING FOR AKZ201-AKZ202-AKZ203-AKZ204-AKZ206.

WINTER STORM WATCH FOR AKZ222.

GALE WARNING FOR PKZ200-PKZ210-PKZ215-PKZ220-PKZ225-PKZ230-
PKZ235-PKZ240-PKZ245-PKZ245.

STORM WARNING FOR PKZ210.

BRISK WIND ADVISORY FOR PKZ235-PKZ240-PKZ240.
&&

TF FEB 11

Event by event

3 coastal flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Coastal Flood, Chukchi Sea Coast

When: February 24, 8:00 AM AKST to 11:00 PM AKST
Where: Chukchi Sea Coast forecast zone
Reported by: Newspaper

Coastal Flood, Baldwin Pen. & Selawik Valley

When: February 25, 9:00 PM AKST to February 26, 1:00 PM AKST
Where: Baldwin Pen. & Selawik Valley forecast zone
Reported by: NWS Employee

Coastal Flood, Nrn & Intr. Seward Peninsula

When: February 25, 9:00 PM AKST to February 26, 1:00 PM AKST
Where: Nrn & Intr. Seward Peninsula forecast zone
Reported by: NWS Employee

What these are

Coastal Flood: Flooding of coastal land by the sea, from storm surge, onshore wind or high tides.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Alaska in 2011 Every state in 2011 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, February 2011

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: 279767, 279768, 279771.