Flood warning says Hooper Bay water could rise up to 7.5 feet above high tide Friday

The National Weather Service's Fairbanks office upgraded its coastal flood watch for the Yukon Delta coast to a warning Wednesday afternoon, the zone's first coastal flood warning this year. The warning forecasts water 5 to 7.5 feet above the normal high tide line at Hooper Bay from 4 am Friday, Oct. 23, to 10 pm Sunday. The watch had called for 4 to 8 feet.

"In Hooper Bay, beach property, and the lowest buildings will be inundated," the warning reads. "The access roads to the airstrip and the larger parts of town will likely be inundated." The rest of the Yukon Delta coast could see 2 to 4.5 feet. The service is telling residents to protect flood-prone property.

The warning follows a coastal flood advisory earlier this month that forecast water 4 to 6 feet above normal high tide near Hooper Bay, Alaska News reported Oct. 8.

Water should peak with Friday's high tides, then fall slowly through the weekend. Forecasters call Hooper Bay the main concern: water may flow over the airport access road and cut off access Friday afternoon, and it may approach roads in Scammon Bay and Nunam Iqua. Elsewhere, they expect mostly significant erosion rather than flooding. "This first storm looks mostly like an inconvenience," the forecast discussion says.

A second storm is forecast for Sunday night into Monday. Its southwest wind could more easily push water toward communities from the Seward Peninsula south. Forecasters have not yet given water levels for that storm.

A High Wind Warning for the Yukon Delta coast forecasts gusts up to 65 mph from 4 am Friday to 4 pm Saturday, with possible power outages.

Blizzard Warnings take effect at 4 am Friday on the Seward Peninsula and Bering Strait coast, with gusts to 60 mph on the coast and 65 mph inland. Flood watches, not yet warnings, call for 5 to 8 feet on the southern Seward Peninsula coast and 4 to 6 feet in the Bering Strait. A surf advisory calls for 5 to 10 feet at Koyuk and Elim in Norton Sound.

To the south, the Anchorage office replaced its Kuskokwim Delta flood watch with a coastal flood advisory for Kipnuk, Kwigillingok and Kongiganak. Forecasters expect 2 to 3 feet, similar to the Aug. 18, 2024 storm, with a worst case of up to 5 feet at Kwigillingok.

A High Wind Warning for the Kuskokwim Delta, Platinum, Goodnews Bay and northern Bristol Bay forecasts gusts to 75 mph, with Bethel expecting 60 to 70 mph Friday. The service is telling residents to prepare for possible widespread power outages.

Hooper Bay has seen similar warnings in recent falls: 5 to 8 feet on Oct. 18, 2024, 4 to 6 feet on Oct. 6, 2025, and 5 to 10 feet with possible record flooding on Oct. 10, 2025, from the remnants of Typhoon Halong. Those were forecasts, not measured water levels. This week's forecast falls within their range.