Extreme Cold/Wind Chill, Central Beaufort Sea Coast
- When
- January 25, 6:45 AM AKST to January 26, 4:45 AM AKST
- Where
- Central Beaufort Sea Coast forecast zone
- Reported by
- AWOS
Extreme Cold in Alaska, January 25 to 28, 2012
Temperatures near 50 below zero combined with a southwest wind of 15 to 20 mph to produce wind chills as low as 87 below zero at the Kuparuk AWOS. The lowest wind chills were observed from approximately 0645AKST on the 25th through 0445AKST on the 26th.
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 AFG wrote it up.
Temperatures near 50 below zero combined with a southwest wind of 15 to 20 mph to produce wind chills as low as 87 below zero at the Kuparuk AWOS. The lowest wind chills were observed from approximately 0645AKST on the 25th through 0445AKST on the 26th.
There was another period of low wind chills from approximately 1000AKST on the 26th through noon AKST on the 28th at Kuparuk. The temperatures slowly moderated to around 30 below zero by the morning of the 28th, but a southwest wind of around 20 mph produced wind chills of 60 to 75 below zero. Low wind chills were also observed at Deadhorse. Temperatures of 30 to 40 below combined with a southwest wind of 15 to 20 mph to produce wind chills as low as 70 below at the Deadhorse ASOS. The low wind chills were observed from approximately 1100AKST on the 27th through noon AKST on the 28th.
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 Jan 24, 1:40 PM AKST, 17 hours 5 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jan 24, 1:40 PM AKST, 17 hours 5 minutes before
NORTHERN ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FAIRBANKS AK 140 PM AKST TUE JAN 24 2012 .DISCUSSION... SYNOPTIC PATTERN LOCKED IN WITH DEEP AND COLD UPPER LEVEL TROUGH OVER WESTERN ALASKA WITH A LONG WAVE RIDGE OVER WESTERN NORTH AMERICA WITH ONLY SLOW RETROGRADE EXPECTED THROUGH THE SHORT TERM. WEAK SHORT WAVES CONTINUE TO MOVE NORTHEAST ALONG THE THE EAST SIDE OF THE TROUGH AND ALONG THE BACK OF THE WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN RIDGE. SHARP CONTRAST NOTED IN TEMPERATURES ACROSS THE WEST CENTRAL INTERIOR WITH 40 AND AND A FEW 50S BELOW IN THE CLEAR SKIES WEST OF TANANA AND TEENS TO 20S BELOW UNDER CLOUDS AND SNOW IN THE EASTERN INTERIOR. GRADIENT BETWEEN SURFACE LOW IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF AK AND HIGH PRESSURE WEST AND NORTHWEST AK ARE CREATING 15 TO 25 MPH WINDS ON SUMMITS IN THE INTERIOR AND THROUGH THE BROOKS RANGE PASSES. WINDS AND VERY COLD AIR MASS ARE CREATING BRUTAL WIND CHILLS ON THE HILLS AND SUMMITS IN THE INTERIOR AND THROUGH THE PASSES IN THE BROOKS RANGE. WIND CHILL VALUES TO 70 BELOW ARE NOTED IN AFTERNOON OBS FROM PAKP. BRUTAL COLD ON THE NORTH SLOPE WITH 57 BELOW NOTED AT UMIAT WITH 6 KTS OF WIND COMBINING FOR WIND CHILL VALUE AROUND 82 BELOW. AS A WEAK SHORT WAVE MOVES NORTH THROUGH THE EASTERN INTERIOR EXPECT THE GRADIENT TO INCREASE TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. EXTENDED ONGOING WIND CHILL ADVISORIES AND WARNINGS THROUGH THE INTERIOR AND NORTH SLOPE. KEPT TIMING ON WEST COAST WIND CHILL ADVISORIES. THERE IS CONSIDERABLE RUN TO RUN SPREAD AMONG THE SYNOPTIC SCALE MODELS AS WELL AS CONSIDERABLE SPREAD BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT MODELS WITH THE SHORT WAVE FEATURES MOVING THROUGH THE LONG WAVE PATTERN. THERE IS HOWEVER DECENT AGREEMENT AMONG THE MODELS WITH THE POSITION AND STRENGTH OF THE LONG WAVE FEATURES WHICH GIVES A DEGREE OF PREDICTABILITY IN THE MEDIUM AND LONG RANGE. PERIODIC CLOUDS AND SNOW ASSOCIATED WITH SHORT WAVES ARE EXPECTED TO MODERATE THE VERY COLD AIR MASS OVER THE EASTERN INTERIOR WHILE THE WESTERN INTERIOR THE NORTH SLOPE AND WEST COAST WILL REMAIN LOCKED IN A COLD PATTERN THROUGH THE END OF THE WEEK. && .AFG WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WIND CHILL ADVISORY FOR AKZ207-AKZ208-AKZ213-AKZ214-AKZ215- AKZ217-AKZ219-AKZ221-AKZ222. WINTER STORM WARNING FOR AKZ206. WIND CHILL WARNING FOR AKZ204-AKZ220. BRISK WIND ADVISORY FOR PKZ210-PKZ220-PKZ225. && CC JAN 12
Event by event
2 extreme cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
Extreme Cold/Wind Chill, Central Beaufort Sea Coast
- When
- January 26, 10:00 AM AKST to January 28, 12:00 PM AKST
- Where
- Central Beaufort Sea Coast forecast zone
- Reported by
- ASOS
What these are
- Extreme Cold/Wind Chill
- Temperatures or wind chills at or below the local warning criteria, or cold that caused deaths.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Texas, January 25, 2012
- Tornadoes in Louisiana, January 25, 2012
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Texas, January 25, 2012
- Tornadoes in Texas, January 25, 2012
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in Louisiana, January 25, 2012
- Tornado and Flash Flooding in Mississippi, January 25 to 26, 2012
- Flash Flooding in Oklahoma, January 25, 2012
- Flash Flood in Arkansas, January 25, 2012
- High Wind in Wyoming, January 25, 2012
- Marine Thunderstorm Winds in Gulf of Mexico, January 25, 2012
- High Wind in Montana, January 25, 2012
- Flash Flood and Hail in Texas, January 25, 2012
More
Every storm in Alaska in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, January 2012
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: 355203, 355320.