West Coast Storm Inbound

Just the other day I mentioned that this summer was one of the windiest on record for the northeastern Bering Sea, and an impending storm is about to ensure that September 2022 goes down in the records book as well.

A typhoon of very modest strength ("Merbok") is currently heading north in the western Pacific, passing the latitude of Japan this evening, and reaching the Aleutians by this time tomorrow.  It has already begun the process of transition from a tropical cyclone to an extratropical cyclone by interacting with the mid-latitude jet stream, and the storm will strengthen and expand dramatically as that process unfolds in the next couple of days.

The west coast of Alaska is going to be hard hit.  Here are forecast maps from the ECMWF model, valid for Friday morning, Friday evening, and Saturday morning.

Rick Thoman, who would know better than anyone what wind and flood risk looks like on the west coast, suggests that the storm's impacts will rival that of November 2011, which has its own Wikipedia page.

The NWS discussion is grim reading:

"The track and strength of this storm moving into the Bering Sea on Friday and Saturday has to the potential to produce major coastal flooding and will likely push significant storm surge into the Yukon River Delta. Water levels with this storm are expected to rival the November 2011 storm. Water levels are expected to rise 5 to 8 feet above normal high tide level along the coast in YK Delta and will push well inland along the Yukon River and surrounding YK delta areas Friday night and Saturday. Water levels in Norton Sound are expected to rise 8 to 12 feet above the normal high tide level and are expected to rise 7 to 10 feet above normal high tide levels along and near the Bering Strait. Hurricane force wind gusts are likely along much of the West Coast as this storm passes."

Here's an animation showing the tropical -> extratropical transition, from Levi Cowan's wonderful site:

For historical perspective, the expected sub-960mb MSLP in the northern Bering Sea will, if it happens, be the lowest MSLP north of about St. Paul Island since at least 1950, according to ERA5 data: