A historic storm blasted western Alaska Friday and Saturday with hurricane-force winds, over 50-foot seas and coastal flooding not seen in a long time.
What was once Typhoon Merbok morphed into a strong northern Pacific storm because it raced nearly due north and pushed through the Aleutian Islands Friday and into the Bering Sea Saturday, bringing a dangerous storm surge inundating coastal villages and towns under several feet of water for hours.
Water levels in Unalakleet were over 11 feet Saturday morning and expected to peak at 15 feet later Saturday afternoon, reaching certainly one of the biggest peaks on record, in response to the National Weather Service.
Major flooding was reported in Golovin where a one-two punch of rain and wind raked the coastal town.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy declared western parts of the state a disaster area on Saturday. The governor said despite the record-breaking impacts the emergency operation center had not received any reports of injuries.
Water is surrounding the varsity while homes and other structures were flooded. “A pair homes were floating off the inspiration,” the National Weather Service in Fairbanks wrote, “and a few fuel tanks are tilted over.”
Highest water levels weren’t expected until Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, winds there have gusted as high as 62 mph.
The Bering Sea was pushing over berms along Shaktoolik and water was entering the coastal community, getting near flooding homes. Residents have evacuated to the town’s school and clinic.
In Nome, the forecasted peak surge is 12.45 feet – 9 feet above the high tide line – for later Saturday with waters reaching 5 feet over the high tide level in Red Dog.
Winds reach over 90 mph in spots
The storm surge was pushed by powerful winds circulating the deep storm center, which had reached as little as 937 millibars on its approach to the Aleutian Islands.
Cape Romanzof measured a gust of 91 mph while gusts reached 74 mph on St. Paul Island, and 62 mph in Adak and Golovin.
Offshore, the storm triggered monster seas in excess of fifty feet. A buoy 310 miles north of Adak reported wave heights of nearly 52 feet late Friday morning amid 74 mph wind gusts.
“Despite the fact that it isn’t officially a typhoon – which is what we could call a hurricane within the (U.S.) – it still has all of that powerful energy,” said FOX Weather meteorologist Britta Merwin. “With strong winds, you’re pushing in a number of water, and which means the ocean levels (are) going to rise and coastal flooding is a priority in addition to storm surge.”
What’s worse, because the storm slows on its exit toward the Arctic, high water levels will proceed for 10 to 14 hours, allowing wind-driven waves on top of the surge to push far inland and produce additional damage.
“Impacts may exceed the 2011 Bering Sea Superstorm, and a few locations may experience their worst coastal flooding in nearly 50 years,” National Weather Service forecasters in Fairbanks wrote early Friday morning.
“The storm is very large,” Merwin said. “It’s still holding on to all those characteristics from when it was a typhoon, but now it’s a cold-core system – a non-tropical storm – that’s going to blast Alaska with some very strong winds.”
Intense storm systems are common for Alaska, but seeing an extra-tropical cyclone with a pressure of lower than 940 millibars isn’t frequent. The newest surface evaluation as of 8 a.m. ET estimated the storm’s central pressure at 937 mb which is the deepest low for September in at the very least the last 17 years measured within the region.
“It’s definitely going to be a big event. It’s shaping as much as be certainly one of the worst events that we’ve seen for years,” the National Weather Service office in Fairbanks, Alaska, said.
Threatened region contributes $5 billion to Alaska’s economy
Communities corresponding to Adak, Unalaska, St. Paul, St. Johns and Bethel will all be near the middle of the storm, where winds and rains might be the heaviest.
“For many of those Alaskan communities, when a storm is bearing down, they don’t have the aptitude for evacuations. So, what they normally do is that they’ll go to a community shelter, which is the protected option,” said Jeremy Zidek, public information officer at Alaska’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “Supply chain issues, transportation issues and weather issues are type of a daily occurrence, so people must be pretty resilient to even live in those areas.”
Meteorologists and first responders are most concerned concerning the maritime community, which produces a lot of the nation’s seafood.
Pacific salmon, crab, Pacific cod, shrimp, herring, sablefish pollock, and Pacific halibut are all harvested from Alaska and result in greater than $5 billion in economic activity in Alaska every yr.
Fomer Typhoon Merbok to have affect on U.S. weather
Typhoon Merbok is certainly one of several significant storm systems from the West Pacific which can be expected to get caught up within the jet stream and impact U.S. weather.
Abnormally warm water within the North Pacific is certainly one of the ingredients helping to reinforce the lifecycle and strength of the northern cyclones but not enough to assist them sustain their tropical cyclone identity into the northern latitudes.
Much like the Atlantic basin, the Northwest Pacific typhoon season is running behind normal, only seeing about half the storms that they’re used to seeing by mid-September.
During recent weeks, the West Pacific has seen an uptick in activity with typhoons Muifa, Hinnamnor and Merbok.
Most, if not all, will result in impacts in Alaska with rain, wind and high seas, meaning that the forty ninth state is likely to be in store for a rainy time period.
Experts with the NWS’ Climate Prediction Center expect several weeks of above-average rainfall within the state.
