A tight pressure gradient set up over the eastern Beaufort Sea Coast as a weather front moved across the area and brought falling snow. Blizzard conditions were reported |from November 18th through the morning hours of the 19th.
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.
The episode as NWS AFG wrote it up.
A tight pressure gradient set up over the eastern Beaufort Sea Coast as a weather front moved across the area and brought falling snow. Blizzard conditions were reported |from November 18th through the morning hours of the 19th.
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 Nov 18, 2:52 PM AKST, 6 hours 8 minutes earlier.
Northern Alaska Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Fairbanks AK 252 PM AKST Thu Nov 18 2021 .SYNOPSIS... A cold airmass will persist over Northern Alaska through next week. The Western Interior and West Coast has cleared and has temperatures in the 10 below to 30 below range this morning. Will see temperatures fall to the 10 below to 30 below range over the remainder of the Interior tonight through Sat as clouds decrease there. Blizzard conditions over the Eastern Arctic Coast and near blizzard conditions in blowing snow over the Central Arctic will continue through tonight then diminish Fri as winds decrease. Near blizzard conditions in blowing snow over the Eastern Brooks Range, and over Summits of the Interior will continue through tonight due to NE winds of 25 to 35 mph. Winds and blowing snow will taper off after midnight. Snow over the Eastern Interior from Fairbanks southeast will taper off from the north tonight. Expect less than 1 inch additional snow there. A weather system is expected to spread more snow north over the Southern Interior on Sun and Mon and cause a slight warming over the SE Interior on Sun and Mon. Aloft... A deep long wave trough stretching from the Canadian Archipelago southwest over Alaska will persist through the weekend, and possibly through next week. This will keep northern Alaska in a colder than normal pattern with periods of light snow. A series of short wave troughs will move from the High Arctic south over Alaska bringing periods of light snow to the North Slope along with periods of strong winds and blowing snow. Some of these short waves will winds south over the West Coast on the weekend. A weak short wave moving north over the southern Interior on Sun will bring a chance of snow and slight warming to the southern Interior Sun PM. Surface... A 1040 mb high over the Western North Slope with a ridge southeast to Dawson will persist through Sat. A 996 mb low over the Northern Gulf of Alaska will weaken through Fri. This is causing light snow over the SE INterior that will taper off tonight. This is also combined with the high over the North Slope to cause strong north winds over the Brooks Range and Alaska Range Passes, and Northeast winds 25 mph over Interior Summits. These winds will taper off south of the Brooks range on Fri. A 1009 mb low over Banks Island will move east. A weather front trailing west from this low will move south over the Eastern Arctic Coast of Alaska on Fri, over the Brooks Range on Fri night will move south over Norton Sound on Sat. This low and front combined with the high, is causing west winds of 15 to 25 mph across the Arctic from Utqiagvik east along with blowing snow. Winds are stronger east of Deadhorse with gusts to 50 mph and blizzard conditions. Snow with the front will spread into the Arctic Coast late tonight and continue into Fri. Expect 1-2 inches from Deadhorse east through Fri. As this front moves south of the Brooks Range it will keep winds blowing there, and cause falling snow with 1-2 inches through Fri night. This is causing near blizzard conditions in passes through Fri eve. This front will cause north winds 15 to 25 mph over the West Coast on Sat. A second weather will move south over the Arctic Coast of Alaska on Sat, and move south over Norton Sound Sun. This will cause more snow along the North SLope, and cause north winds to increase of the West Coast Sat night and Sun to 25g35 mph. This will bring increased surf and freezing spray to the North Shore of St Lawrence Is Sun and Mon and could cause icing issues at Savoonga. A low moving into the Northern Gulf of Alaska on Sun will spread snow over the SE INterior on Sun along with slight warming. CLouds see southerly gap winds through AK Range Passes on Sun along with increasing NE winds over the remainder of the Interior. && .DISCUSSION... At 12Z, models initialize well aloft and show similar solutions aloft through 3pm Sat. After that time, the GFS and ECMF maintain similar solutions Sat night and Sun, while the NAM has a deeper low aloft further east than the GFS/ECMF. Prefer the better agreement shown by the GFS and ECMF for Sat night and Sun. With precipitation, models differ slightly on precip for today, with the GFS and ECMF better reflecting areal coverage over the Interior from Fairbanks southeast today. Models show similar solutions tonight through Sat night. On Sun, the GFS and ECMF push precip further northwest than the NAM over the Eastern Interior. Favor a blend of the GFS and ECMF precip to reflect the areal coverage today, and the precip moving further NW on Sun which goes in line with the GFS/ECMF solutions aloft as well. At the surface, the low in the Gulf of AK is 2-4 mb deeper than models indicate at 18Z. Expect winds to be 2-3 kt stronger than models indicate between the Brooks Range and Alaska Range through tonight as a result. Bottom line for models is that we will use a blend of the GFS and ECMF for temperatures, precip and winds, with the caveat that winds will be bumped up tonight 2-3 kt between the Brooks and AK Ranges, and the precip in the SE Interior diminish form the north tonight. Coastal Hazard Potential Days 3 and 4...Elevated surf and heavy freezing spray possible North Shore of St Lawrence Island including Savoonga and Gambell on Sun and Mon. && .AFG WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Blizzard Warning for AKZ204. Winter Weather Advisory for AKZ203-AKZ206-AKZ218. Heavy Freezing Spray Warning for PKZ210. Gale Warning for PKZ245. Brisk Wind Advisory for PKZ230-PKZ235-PKZ240. && JB NOV 21
1 blizzard. Local standard time, as filed.
Blizzard conditions were observed at the Point Thompson AWOS (PAAD) with a sustained winds of 35 to 50 mph and a peak gust of 56 mph.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2021Every state in 2021This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, November 2021
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: 986006.