Avalanche in Alaska, March 21, 1999

Name: Avalanche in Alaska, March 21, 1999
Start: 1999-03-21T12:00
End: 1999-03-21T18:00
Location: Alaska

March 21, 1999 · NWS AFC · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 avalanche, as filed by the National Weather Service.

The toll

Deaths: 6
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $25,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Event by event

1 avalanche. Local standard time, as filed.

Avalanche, Cook Inlet

When: March 21, 12:00 PM AST to 6:00 PM AST
Where: Cook Inlet forecast zone
Deaths: 6 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $25,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

A tragic avalanche, adjacent to Turnagain Pass on Saturday, took the lives of 6 people. After days of searching by many volunteers, 5 bodies were recovered. The avalanche was triggered by snowmachiners 'high-marking' on the mountain slope during a warm, sunny day...after heavy snows several days before.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Avalanche, Cook Inlet	1999-03-21	29	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct
Avalanche, Cook Inlet	1999-03-21	28	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct
Avalanche, Cook Inlet	1999-03-21	29	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct
Avalanche, Cook Inlet	1999-03-21	37	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct
Avalanche, Cook Inlet	1999-03-21	26	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct
Avalanche, Cook Inlet	1999-03-21		Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Avalanche: A mass of snow sliding down a mountainside that caused a death, an injury or damage.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Alaska in 1999 Every state in 1999 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, March 1999

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5681938.