How often does Alaska get a hurricane?

[sail-a-bration]

On the deadliest catch show they had a hurricane while they were out in the barring sea, they seemed to be unalarmed about its approach which led me to wonder how often do they get hurricanes? Any locals have information on when hurricane season is and how often it happens?

[wolfie11]

We don't officially get hurricanes in Alaska. Sometimes, however, the remnants of Pacific typhoons will get far enough north to affect us. Large low pressure systems do develop and spin off the Aleutian Low which have hurricane-strength winds and lots of rain associated with them. This is likely what you saw on Deadliest Catch.

[O2B@C]

What Wolfie said sounds right to me. As I understand it, hurricanes (and their cousins, typhoons and cyclones) are strictly tropical in origin, because storms need warm water to grow to hurricane strength. Sometimes a hurricane will follow the Gulf Stream north along the East Coast, and get to New England that way, but I don't think they can get very far north without that assist. I'm not aware (after almost 35 years in California) of any hurricanes, per se, coming north along the West Coast or otherwise reaching Alaska.

[kk-l]

On the deadliest catch show they had a hurricane while they were out in the barring sea, they seemed to be unalarmed about its approach which led me to wonder how often do they get hurricanes? Any locals have information on when hurricane season is and how often it happens?

Put away your foul weather gear and your Xtratufs...those of us sailing the Inside Passage in August are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I'm a big fan of The Deadliest Catch and daydream of being a tough guy/gal as well. It just ain't gonna happen on these ships in the Inside Passage.

I was curious to find out the answer to your question so I Googled "Hurricane Alaska" and came up with these links...the last a blog for the Deadliest Catch show which basically concluded that it was dramatized. It's a Discovery Channel "soap opera"...or as it's now known..."reality TV". Still love it!

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF8/892.html

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF17/1774.html

http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=101428

[sail-a-bration]

thanks for that great link, I guess they were just using the word hurricane, because no one would know what a williwaw wind is. I love that show too, I am in awe of how hard these men work, the hours without sleep, and the danger. It can't be just for the money, it must be the thrill and the challange. Glad to know I do not have to worry about hurricanes. I have had one carribean cruise canceled and one hit Fla. while we were in Mexico, thank God it didn't wipe out the parking lots like it did in New Orleans.

[Chenega]

Absolutely no hurricanes up here (you need water temps in the low 80s to create a hurricane and we're too far north) but we do get intense low pressure systems in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. Occasionally we get the remnants of a typhoon (a hurricane in the western Pacific) that brings wind and rain to the Aleutians and Southcentral but those are rare events.

 

Unfortunately, many so-called "documentaries" on Alaska are full of factual errors and the term hurricane doesn't apply here. Hurricane force winds maybe but no actual hurricane storm.

 

Trust me on this one - I teach it at the college level in Alaska.

[chewap]

The North Pacific is too cold to generate huricanes, but the winter storms are as intense as a huricane. I live in Washington State, we had 8 storms last winter that packed hurincane winds. One storm had a 865MB low preasure and a weather station on the coast recorded 165 MPH winds.

[smoked salmon]

In Ketchikan, November is a particularly notorious month for winter storms. My husband remembers as a child that there were many thanksgivings where the winds were so strong the power would get knocked out halfway through the turkey cooking. We use our gas grill...just in case

March is another month when we can experience a lot of rain and wind but when you live where there's 15 feet a year, it's all relative.

 

Far be it for me to say what's typical, but the cruise season is low on the scale for big storms and high winds.