Extremely Dangerous Storm Slicing Towards Alaska (November 2011)

An extremely dangerous storm is slicing toward northwestern Alaska and is expected to bring blizzard conditions and hurricane-strength winds to the state’s west coast. The storm, which formed from a mix of air masses over an area of ocean prone to spinning up strong storms, could be bigger than anything ever seen in the 49th state, the National Weather Service warned.

The storm is the product of warm air in the Pacific Ocean tapping into the cold air off Siberia, picking up speed in a jet stream near there and then intensifying as it moved into the Bering Sea – “a place where storms typically intensify,” Brader told OurAmazingPlanet.

The weird storm has an unusually long fetch length, which is the length of the wind blowing in a single direction over water. In this case it’s maybe 1,000 miles (1,600 km), Brader said.

To envision what a long fetch length will do, think about blowing wind with your mouth over a bowl of water; the water piles up at the opposite end. The same thing happens over the ocean. The stronger and longer the fetch length, the bigger the waves it will create.

The winds from the current storm will push high waves ashore and create widespread coastal flooding and severe erosion of the coastline, the NWS warns. Sea levels could rise as much as 10 feet (3 meters) above normal in the Norton Sound and along the Bering Strait coast.

We all know that everything is attributable to global climate warming change disruption, so two points to the first commentor who can post a source attributing the storm or resulting flooding to our old friend…

When I was a merchant seaman many moons ago, my ship (a smallish freighter) was caught in a severe storm in the Bering Sea near the Diomedes.

The storm hit and intensified at an astonishing rate, and we were caught dead red out in the open with no place to hide.

The wheelhouse was 30 feet above waterline, and we were looking up at fifty footers and running for our everlovin' lives. Stuff was breaking loose all over the deck and going overboard, but the Captain refused to let us out on deck to secure anything.

He said, "I can't offload whatever's left if I ain't got no crew to do it."

I chain smoked a full pack of Marlboros in a four-hour watch, watching these waves come up on our quarter and peel away 30,000 pound containers like playing cards, holding on for dear life. The waves were steep and very close together due to the relatively shallow water through which we were sailing.

I finished my watch and went to my bunk fully convinced that I was a dead man, but I felt completely calm about it. It was the strangest emotion I ever felt. I went to sleep, fully clothed, almost immediately.

When I awoke four hours later, I was surprised to find that I was still alive, and that the ship's motion had changed. I got up to the wheelhouse to find us hove to in the lee of an island we had managed to find while the storm blew over. We spent the next three days knotting, splicing, welding, patching holes in the deck wherever padeyes had been ripped away, and counting our blessings.

The ship spent two weeks in dock for repairs, replacing sprung hull plates and a damaged screw.

In my time as a sailor I have sailed through several typhoons, around Cape Horn twice in fouls seas, and through a hurricane or two. I never really felt in any danger during any of those times. But that one storm in the Bering Sea so completely frightened me that I swore to God that I would quit the sea before ever going there again.

A few years later, that's exactly what I did. I was called up on my off time to replace a bosun who developed appendicitis. I was told to fly up to Dutch Harbor to meet the ship and complete the run to the North Slope. It was late autumn. I told them what to do with their ship.

It's been about fifteen years since I sailed through that storm, and I still get chills when I think about it.

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