Wind watch upgraded to warning for the Western Arctic Coast and Shishmaref

The National Weather Service in Fairbanks upgraded its Western Arctic Coast wind watch to a High Wind Warning on Tuesday, forecasting southwest winds of 30 to 45 mph with gusts up to 65 mph from 4 a.m. Thursday to 4 p.m. Friday. A watch means such winds are possible. A warning means the office expects them. A day earlier the watch topped out at 60 mph.

A second warning covers Shishmaref, the Bering Strait Coast, Diomede and St. Lawrence Island with the same figures, from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 4 p.m. Friday.

"High winds may move loose debris, blow around unsecured objects, damage property, and cause power outages," NWS Fairbanks said in both warnings. Travel could be difficult. The office urges people to secure loose objects.

The agency also extended its High Surf Advisory for the Western Arctic Coast and Northwest Arctic Coast. Water is expected to run 3 to 5 feet above the normal high tide line, the level the tide usually reaches at its highest, peaking during each high tide, from 10 p.m. Wednesday until 4 a.m. Saturday. The earlier version of the advisory ended Friday afternoon.

Water is forecast 2 to 4 feet above the normal high tide line at Kivalina and Red Dog Dock, the Baldwin Peninsula, the Lower Kobuk Valley and the Northern Seward Peninsula through 4 a.m. Saturday, and 2 to 4 feet at Shishmaref and along the Bering Strait Coast through 10 p.m. Friday. The Southern Seward Peninsula Coast is under an advisory for 3 to 4 feet through Friday night. All four warn of localized beach erosion.

A sixth advisory forecasts 3 to 5 feet along Eastern Norton Sound from 10 p.m. Tuesday to 10 p.m. Friday.

A 2009 Government Accountability Office report counted 31 Alaska Native villages facing imminent threats from flooding and erosion. Kivalina, Shaktoolik and Shishmaref "will likely need to relocate all at once," it found, and had not found sites all parties agreed were safe and sustainable. A single 2013 storm took 60 feet of shoreline at Shishmaref, according to a USDA Climate Hubs review of Western Alaska coastal storms.

Winds are forecast to subside Friday night into Saturday.