Posted on 11/08/2011 5:34:29 PM PST by NormsRevenge
An "epic" storm was bearing down on western Alaska on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, warning that it could be one of the worst on record for the state.
The storm, moving inland from the Aleutian Islands, was expected to bring hurricane-force winds with gusts up to 100 miles per hour, heavy snowfall, widespread coastal flooding and severe erosion to most of Alaska's west coast, the National Weather Service warned.
"This will be an extremely dangerous and life threatening storm of an epic magnitude rarely experienced," the service said in a special warning message on Tuesday.
Nome and the rest of the Seward Peninsula, a section of land that juts out toward Siberia, are expected to be the hardest-hit areas, said Andy Brown, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Anchorage.
Powerful storms in the North Pacific and Bering Sea are common this time of year, but this event is unusual because of its trajectory, Brown said.
"It's going very far north," he said.
Posing an additional threat is the lack of sea ice off northwestern Alaska, he said. The last time a storm of a similar magnitude was sent in the same northward direction was 1974, but the sea surface was much more frozen then, he said.
"History tells that the sea ice helps subdue the storm surge," Brown said "With no sea ice there, we could see the full brunt of that 6- to 9-foot storm surge."
Arctic sea ice this year reached the second-lowest coverage since satellite records began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Scientists there on Tuesday were watching the Alaska storm and anticipating its impacts.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Apparently a storm of historic proportions is preparing to lash the coast of Alaska - before moving inland.
Kotzebue Sound
http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/PK/215.html
Palin’s fault.
U.S. Severe Alerts Map
http://www.wunderground.com/severe.asp
Looks like the Occupy Nome protestors are in for a rough time.
Darn! You beat me to it...
Are you series???
In a week or so that system will probably be down here. Great.
Northwestern crew fault???
So much for the opelio crab season ...
ROFL actually that don’t start until January I know what you mean
Has MY vote for best post of the thread. (Now, where's that little smiley guy rolling around on the floor laughing when I need him??)
> Has MY vote for best post of the thread.
It's not often that I truly laugh out loud, but I really did LOL on that line!
Might be best post of the night!!
It’s supposed to be -20 in FAirbanks tonight. ugh
I live in rural upstate NY, and it rarely gets to -20 for very long. But when it does, I know, because the cats insist on sleeping inside my pajamas.
That’s funny. I live in the mountain area south of Fairbanks so it will only to around 0 tonight. Fairbanks is so cold, it is not unusual for them to have -50 or -60.
When you go there you car moans and you never shut it off all day.
Geez. I'm amazed the car would ever start in the first place. I suppose you only shut it off inside a heated garage.
DANG!! I'll never complain about cold again!!
(That's a lie. Of course I'll complain. But I will remember you when I do, and moderate my whine.)
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