Kodiak braces for week of extreme weather

Kodiak was buffeted by wind and rain over the weekend, after a wet week which included the second rainiest day in the last 10 years. If you were hoping for better weather, then you might have to wait awhile.

With sustained winds well in excess of 40 miles-per-hour and seas in the ballpark of 20ft, the weather will be taking a turn for the worse on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Dr. Martin Stuefer, the state climatologist, says there are two powerful weather systems responsible.

“We had a low pressure system, which intensified moved north into the Gulf of- northward into the Gulf of Alaska, causing pretty extreme wind speeds. We measured yesterday morning at the Kodiak airport- or the… the weather service measured at the weathers at the airport. Winds in the early morning of 36 knots gusting to 48 knots. That’s pretty extreme, high wind speeds. And again, during this week, looking at different weather models, they agreed pretty much this low pressure system development continues. Another low pressure system moves into the into the gulf and that will be sustained strong winds. Tomorrow afternoon, the Tuesday tomorrow afternoon, the winds, winds are forecasted in at 40, the knots and gusting maybe up to 50 knots. So pretty extreme winds,” said Stuefer.

Stuefer says that wind speeds such as this are unusually intense.

“You know, wind speeds in excess of 40 knots are… are not very often I just looked at statistics like for during the former period 71 to 2000, we had a maximum recorded wind speed of 54 miles per hour that corresponds to 47 knots. So that was the previous records from 71 to 2000. What we saw yesterday we started got some 48 knots. That’s very extreme,” said Stuefer.

Stuefer says that while the rainfall will likely not reach the record-breaking heights of last Tuesday, we will have precipitation throughout most of the week.

“With the winds of course and the Gulf of Alaska coastal areas extreme wave action, so if possible, avoid any shipping or Beyond near near the coast at low levels, and I would very much warn the public to stay as good as possible within safe areas, with houses,” said Stuefer.

As always in storm conditions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend having nonperishable food on hand, as well as essential medications.