Kipnuk, Alaska

... Wind Chill Advisory remains in effect until 3 PM akst
Thursday...

A Wind Chill Advisory remains in effect until 3 PM akst Thursday.

A very chilly air mass continues to filter into the Kuskokwim
Delta... with north winds of 20 to 35 mph inland and 30 to 45 mph
along the coast yielding wind chills of 35 to 50 below. Winds will
remain strong through early tomorrow afternoon while temperatures
will slowly fall through tonight. Therefore... dangerous wind
chills are likely through mid afternoon Thursday.
Precautionary/preparedness actions...

A Wind Chill Advisory means that very cold air and strong winds
will combine to generate low wind chills. This will result in
frostbite and lead to hypothermia if precautions are not taken.

... Over 5 feet of record snowfall in Valdez...

On Wednesday the Valdez Weather Service office recorded 21.4 inches
of snow. This breaks the previous record of 12.6 inches set back in
1975.

The Valdez Weather Service office measured 38.7 inches of total
snowfall on Tuesday which blew away the previous daily snowfall
record for December 15th of 10.1 inches set back in 1991.

This makes it the highest 24 hour snowfall for the month of
December... the previous record was 31.7 inches set on December 30th
2002.

The 38.7 inches that fell Tuesday also became the 2nd highest all
time 24 hour snowfall record... only 8.8 inches shy of the 47.5 inches
that fell on January 16th 1990.

2.04 inches of precipitation was recorded on Tuesday which broke the
previous record of 1.96 inches set back in 2005.


Top 10 highest snowfall for 3 consecutive days in a row

February 4 to 6 1996 74.6 inches
December 14 to 16 2009 68.2 inches
January 15 to 17 1990 66.2 inches
February 5 to 7 1978 60.7 inches
December 30 2002 to Jan 01 2003 55.5 inches
January 27 to 29 1973 53.2 inches
February 4 to 6 1993 51.3 inches
March 30 1999 to April 1 1999 50.6 inches
March 14 to 16 1995 48.8 inches
January 23 to 25 1989 48.0 inches

... 5 feet of snow dumped on Valdez...

After a relatively tranquil cool and dry 2nd week of December the
weather in Valdez flipped to record breaking snowfall. As cold Arctic
air slid south to the southwest Alaska Mainland a trough of low
pressure formed over the Prince William Sound Monday. This allowed
for a steady onshore southerly wind flow to pick up moisture from the
Gulf of Alaska. During the day on Monday we experienced periods of
light snow giving US 8 inches for the day. As the Arctic air started
to push south and east toward the Gulf a moderately strong low formed
in the western Prince William Sound on Tuesday. This helped to
enhance the southerly flow picking up even more moisture aimed
directly at the northeast Prince William Sound. From 3 PM Tuesday
afternoon until 1 am Wednesday morning the snow rates were over 3
inches per hour... from 6 to 7 PM the snow rate was close to an
unbelievable 5 inches. From 3 PM to midnight Tuesday Valdez picked
up a whopping 33 inches or close to 3 feet of the white stuff. As the
low shifted more to the west the heavy snowfall lessened to periods
of light snow for the remainder of the day Wednesday.

The total snowfall for this amazing event from Monday through
Wednesday evening was 68.2 inches with 3.71" of precipitation.

Please see the record event report for more information regarding the
records that were broken.