What Goes Around, Comes Around

Here in the continental U.S. we usually look to the west to see "where our weather is coming from". On the west coast, they look out into the Pacific.  In Alaska, they look even further out into the Pacific Ocean.

Alaska is in the midst of a stormy period right now.  A large storm battering the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands yesterday and today is the extratropical alter ego of Typhoon Wipha, a huge storm which slammed into Japan earlier this week. Typhoon Wipha dumped 33 inches of rain in 24 hours on Izu Oshima island, 75 miles south of Tokyo. The rain triggered massive mudslides destroying 280 homes on the island. The storm caused 17 fatalities, 16 of them on Izu Oshima.

This animation of the Total Precipitable Water (TPW) product revealed the large amount of tropical moisture that was transported northward toward Japan as Typhoon Wipha began its poleward recurvature. At the end of the animation Wipha began its extratropical transition as it merged with a cold front that was exiting Asia and beginning to move southeastward across the North Pacific Ocean. Image and caption: Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies blog.

The storm will continue to affect much of western Alaska through the weekend, although by Sunday it should be weakening.

Surface weather for Friday, October 18.

Some of the energy associated with the upper level trough with this sytem will ride over the ridge in the western Pacific and help deepen the trough over the central U.S. early next week.

500 millibar map for Monday, October 21, at 4:00 p.m. CDT

The strong northwest flow aloft will mean a colder than normal week from the Rockies to the east coast and an end to the growing season in many areas.

Maximum temperatures and departure from normal for Tuesday, October 22 (left), and Friday October 25 (right).