Ex-typhoon Halong hit the AK west coast early Sunday morning. Severe impacts have been reported from the Kuskokwim River delta region, with major damage in the communities of Kipnuk, Kwigillingok, and Napakiak. Social media footage shared by residents shows homes floating away in inundated residential areas. The Troopers indicated in a statement that 51 people were rescued from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. As of Sunday afternoon, Alaskan media reported no serious injuries or fatalities but “at least three” remained missing according to ADN. Many residents sought shelter in local schools.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska Air National Guard, and Alaska Army National Guard were deployed for search and rescue efforts and to support disaster response. A disaster declaration issued a few days before the arrival of the storm has been extended by Gov. Dunleavy.
Extreme wind speeds
Coastal flood warnings and wind advisories remain in effect on much of the West Coast. See the NWS overview page for current warnings. During the worst of the storm, gusts of up to 100 miles per hour were recorded in Tooksook Bay. St George Island reached 91 mph and Bethel and St Mary’s had gusts of over 70 mph.
Storm Halong initially formed around October 3rd southeast of Japan. The storm intensified and was declared a typhoon by the Japanese Meteorological Agency on October 7. It developed a clear eye and reached category 4 strength (sustained winds of 130–156 mph). Typhoon Halong initially tracked east from the Japanese coast into the Pacific before turning onto a northeasterly track and transitioning into an extratropical system. The Ex-Typhoon then tracked across the Aleutians into the Bering Sea.
Climate change, extreme storms and coastal impacts in western Alaska
The severe impacts from Ex-Typhoon Halong on Alaska’s west coast fit within a broader pattern of change consistent with scientific understanding of a warming climate. Warming has increased atmospheric moisture and the intensity of heavy precipitation, while shifting storm tracks and behaviors (IPCC AR6). Tropical cyclones are also migrating poleward while undergoing more powerful extratropical transitions, allowing the remnants of western Pacific typhoons—such as Halong and 2022’s Merbok—to retain hurricane-force winds, expansive wave fields, and intense rainfall as they reach the Bering and Chukchi regions (Kossin et al., 2019).
At the same time, Arctic sea-ice loss, warmer North Pacific sea-surface temperatures, sea-level rise, and thawing permafrost coasts are amplifying coastal flooding and erosion. With fewer protective ice days and higher baseline water levels, storms like Halong can now drive more destructive surges and wave run-up across low-lying communities such as Kipnuk, Kwigillingok, and Napakiak, underscoring how climate change is heightening both the frequency and severity of extreme coastal events in western Alaska (Hay et al., 2023).
References
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Weather and Climate Extreme Events in a Changing Climate. In: Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press; 2023:1513-1766.
J.P. Kossin, K.R. Knapp, T.L. Olander, & C.S. Velden, Global increase in major tropical cyclone exceedance probability over the past four decades (2020). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117 (22) 11975-11980. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.
Hay, S., Priestley, M. D. K., Yu, H., Catto, J. L., & Screen, J. A. (2023). The effect of Arctic sea-ice loss on extratropical cyclones. Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2023GL102840. https://doi.org/10.1029/