Imagine a hurricane with snow!

Alaska has some of the most amazing weather in the world, although I much prefer to marvel at it from afar.

It's a place where temperatures reach 90 degrees in the summer and 45 below zero a few months later.

And some of the storm systems that affect the state are incredible. Case in point: the storm that is expected to pound the western part of Alaska on Tuesday.

If you watched the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," you know what I mean. Storms repeatedly batter the Bering Sea and the far northern Pacific Ocean throughout the year, but especially from autumn into winter. Those lobster boat crews battle hurricane-force winds and mountainous seas.

I notice that the Weather Channel is launching a somewhat-similar series Wednesday night, with its "Coast Guard Alaska."

A Hurricane Force Wind Warning is in effect for the western coast of the state for Tuesday and Tuesday night, and where the storm is predicted to make landfall -- around Nome -- there's also a blizzard warning.

The low pressure system is expected to have a central pressure of 944 mb when it makes landfall. That's the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane.

Winds in the western Aleutians, from the islands of Attu to Kiska, are forecast to be 75 to 80 mph Tuesday, with waves of 30 feet. In Nome, the forest is for 4 to 8 inches of snow and winds of 60 mph. Temperatures will be in the 20s while all this is happening.

The forecast for the town of Gambell -- on St. Lawrence Island, off the Alaskan west coast -- is for 75 mph winds and a mix of snow, rain and fog, with temperatures around 30 degrees. How can you have fog with winds of 75 mph?

The weather here in the Carolinas should be very quiet this week. I prefer "quiet" to 75 mph winds, snow and fog.