{"id":72204,"date":"2026-09-13T15:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=72204"},"modified":"2026-09-16T01:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:47:14","slug":"strong-winds-cause-coastal-flooding-and-road-closures-in-utqiagvik-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/72204","title":{"rendered":"Strong winds cause coastal flooding and road closures in Utqiagvik, Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/G18_WV_PABR_1213SEP2026_loop_GOES-18_2026255_150022_2026256_150022.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>10-minute GOES-18 Water Vapor images with plots of hourly surface wind barbs and wind gusts, from 1500 UTC on 12 September to 1500 UTC on 13 September<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260912_260913_mslpAnomaly_AK_anim.gif\">anomalously-deep<\/a><\/strong> low pressure system was moving eastward from the Chukchi Sea to the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska (<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260912_260913_surface_analyses_AK_anim.gif\">surface analyses<\/a><\/strong>), strong southwesterly to westerly surface winds caused inland flooding that led to some road closures in the Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) area on 12-13 September 2026. 10-minute Full Disk scan GOES-18 <em>(GOES-West)<\/em> Water Vapor images centered on Barrow Post-Rogers Airport <strong><em>(above)<\/em><\/strong> showed the cloud features (brighter shades of white) associated with the low pressure system, and dryer air behind its cold front (darker shades of blue) &#8212; and included plots of hourly surface wind barbs and wind gusts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A listing of Barrow Post-Rogers Airport surface observations <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> showed that <strong>peak<\/strong> wind gusts were 50-51 knots for 3 consecutive hours (0553-0753 UTC on 13 September).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260912_260913_PABR_observations.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260912_260913_PABR_observations.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Surface reports for Barrow Post-Rogers Airport (courtesy Rick Thoman, University of Alaska-Fairbanks) [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A toggle between VIIRS Infrared Window images from Suomi-NPP and NOAA-21 <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> provided a more detailed view of the clouds associated with the offshore low pressure system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260912_suomiNPP_noaa21_viirs_infrared_AK_anim.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>VIIRS Infrared Window images from Suomi-NPP and NOAA-21 (mislabeled by AWIPS as NPP), with plots of surface wind barbs and peak wind gusts<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Public Service Announcement issued by Alaska&#8217;s North Slope Borough <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> detailed the flooding-related road closures in Utqiagvik.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260913_NorthSlopeBorough_psa.png\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Public Service Announcement from the North Slope Borough<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As an anomalously-deep low pressure system was moving eastward from the Chukchi Sea to the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska (surface analyses), strong southwesterly to westerly surface winds caused inland flooding that led to some road closures in the Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) area on 12-13 September 2026. 10-minute Full Disk scan GOES-18 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":72210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,131,49,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goes-18","category-noaa-21","category-suomi_npp","category-viirs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72204"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72226,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72204\/revisions\/72226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}