A Bering Sea storm that hit Western Alaska ON Sunday night made its way into the Interior by Monday night, Fairbanks based National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Berg said.
"It is snowing heavily in the Fairbanks area right now," Berg said around 8:15 p.m. Monday. "We're getting about half of an inch every hour, and that's expected to continue for the next several hours."
Berg estimated that McGrath had also received about six inches of snow Monday, with more snow expected overnight.
The storm moved out of Western Alaska quickly although strong winds lingered in the region Monday night, Berg said. But despite its quick departure, forecasters said the storm left its mark.
Anchorage-based meteorologist Dan Peterson said NWS hadn't received any reports of damage by Monday night, but said he expects them later.
"I'm sure there will be some reports," Peterson said. "There usually is with this kind of wind, but it will take a day or so. I'm sure we'll know more by (Tuesday) morning."
In Mekoryuk on Nunivak Island, 30 miles off the mainland in the Bering Sea, the storm hit fast and hard, turning what had been a sunny Sunday into something fierce by that evening.
"In one day, 24 hours, we had really good weather, then we had snow flurries and high winds which turned into a blizzard. And after the blizzard, we had rain," Muriel Amos, a nearly lifelong resident of Mekoryuk, said Monday afternoon.
Nothing flooded on the island. Homes are built up high. But the high tide was especially high, she said.
The boat dock area, a simple gravel-covered slanted shoreline, erodes in these big storms, she said. In the past the shoreline would have been protected by ice but now that buffer arrives later later.
"We have open waters. As a matter of fact, the name of this month in our language is called Imam Umgutii," said Amos, a retired teacher. That means when the sea is closing in with ice.
In Shishmaref, on an island farther north in the Chukchi Sea, the storm hit before noon Monday and moved across quickly, said Sharon Nayokpuk, who works for the community environmental program.
School let out early, at 1 p.m., and the principal stood by the door to make sure every young child had someone meeting him or her.
It was whiteout conditions, Nayokpuk said. "We could not see next door." That was about 5 steps away.
But by 3:30 p.m., the sun was out, she said.
The new storm follows one that affected the same area last week, bringing up to 8 inches of snow to some parts of Western Alaska before dissipating on Friday.
According to the National Weather Service's weather hazards map, the Yukon Delta, St. Lawrence Island, Bering Strait Coast, and Eastern Norton Sound regions all had high surf advisories in effect until 6 a.m. Wednesday. A high surf advisory is also in effect until noon Tuesday for the Bristol Bay region. A coastal flood advisory was in effect for the Kuskokwim Delta until noon Tuesday.
Winter storm warnings were also in effect through Tuesday for the Lower Yukon Valley, Northern and Interior Seward Peninsula, the Upper and Lower Kobuk Valleys, Noatak Valley, the Southeastern Brooks Range, Central Interior, Yukon Flats and the Susitna Valley.