Avalanche in Alaska, January 1, 2001

Name: Avalanche in Alaska, January 1, 2001
Start: 2001-01-01T15:00
End: 2001-01-01T16:00
Location: Alaska

January 1, 2001 · NWS AFC · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 avalanche, as filed by the National Weather Service.

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 1
Property damage: None recorded
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, Wrn P.W. Snd & Kenai Mtns

When: January 1, 3:00 PM AST to 4:00 PM AST
Where: Wrn P.W. Snd & Kenai Mtns forecast zone
Injuries: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Another avalanche, located at Aaron's Last Run, injured Michael McKinney, 31, of Fairbanks Monday afternoon. The location is the same as the one which claimed 6 lives in March 1999 and is named for one of those killed. The slide was 100 to 300 yards wide and carried McKinney perhaps 1,000 feet down the steep slope, where it settled into a 15 foot-deep debris field. According to experts, "This guy is very, very lucky to have wound up coming out of this thing alive". Rescuers quickly spread out in a line and soon heard McKinney's voice rising from the snow. "He was saying, 'Help me God, please save me, somebody find me,', one of the rescuers said. "Just his mouth was sticking out and his one hand."

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 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, January 2001

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: 5229181.