VAWS: An Exploration of Kodiak Wind Events

Speakers: Perry Dehne, NOAA; Julia Ruthford, NOAA; Emily Niebuhr, NOAA NWS

Kodiak City on Kodiak Island is one of the busiest port cities in Alaska and home to one of the largest Coast Guard bases in the United States. However, strong wind events may impede or even prohibit both air and marine traffic.

An intense gap wind and mountain wave hybrid event occurred December 2-3, which the National Weather Service Office in Anchorage, AK successfully anticipated.

In this presentation, the factors leading to this strong wind event will be explored in-depth. In addition, a climatology of the top 10 wind events to occur in Kodiak City will be presented and classified based on similar synoptic and mountain wave properties. Finally, a statistical gap wind tool has been developed to help forecasters anticipate wind events which will be shared.