High surf advisory holds until 10 p.m. Saturday as Utqiaġvik logs record September rain

A storm along Alaska's northern coast drove high surf into Arctic communities this week and set a rainfall record in Utqiagvik.

High surf advisories run through Saturday for much of the northwest and northern coast, with water 2 to 4 feet above the normal high tide line and beach erosion expected. The strongest winds came Thursday evening, gusting to 60 mph at Kivalina and 53 at Point Lay.

The record was the rain. Utqiagvik recorded 0.80 inches in the 24 hours ending Friday morning, the wettest September day in a climate record that goes back to 1920, breaking a mark set in 2021. Climate specialist Rick Thoman of the University of Alaska Fairbanks flagged the new high Friday.