Name: Wildfire in Alaska, June 1 to 10, 2002
Start: 2002-06-01T00:00
End: 2002-06-10T16:00
Location: Alaska

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $20,000
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.

What happened

The episode as NWS AFG wrote it up.

Event continued from May. A human-caused wildfire near Chena Hot Springs Road burned 4 cabins (estimated $5,000 a piece) and threatened to consume Angel Creek Lodge (at 50 mile Chena Hot Springs Road). The fire closed Chena Hot Springs Road from the 25th through the 3rd of June, effectively closing Chena Hot Springs Resort to tourism during the time. Reported loss to the Resort was estimated at $50,000, and would have been much greater had not the Resort been used as a fire-fighting staging area by fire agencies.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Fairbanks, AK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 31, 6:25 PM AST, 5 hours 35 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 31, 6:25 PM AST, 5 hours 35 minutes before

NORTH ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
230 PM ADT FRI MAY 31 2002

UPPER LOW CENTERED NEAR WAINWRIGHT IS MOVING SLOWLY BUT STEADILY
NORTHEASTWARD. WEAK BUT PERSISTENT UPPER RIDGE OVER CENTRAL INTERIOR
WILL BUILD WESTWARD TO WEST COAST OVER THE WEEKEND. WEAK TROUGH MOVING
NORTHWARD FROM THE GULF OF ALASKA SATURDAY NIGHT AND INTO THE INTERIOR
ON SUNDAY. AT THE SURFACE...1008 MB 100 MILES NORTH OF BARTER ISLAND
WILL MOVE NORTH AND OUT OF THE AREA SATURDAY. 1019 MB HIGH WEST OF
SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND WILL DRIFT NORTHEAST BUT WITH RIDGING EXPANDING
TO JUST NORTH OF THE ARCTIC COAST BY SATURDAY AFTERNOON. THERMAL TROUGH
PERSISTING OVER THE SOUTHERN INTERIOR THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

12Z MODELS IN PRETTY GOOD AGREEMENT ON THIS BASICALLY WEAK SUMMERTIME
PATTERN..EVEN INTO THE MID RANGE. DETAILS DIFFER OF COURSE ON
CONVECTION AND RAINFALL AMOUNTS...BUT GIVEN POOR MODEL HANDLING OF WHAT
AMOUNTS TO AIRMASS STYLE CONVECTION (NOTE LARGE RUN TO RUN VARIATION
IN THE DETAILS)...GENERIC FORECASTS BEST BET.

FOR THE NORTH SLOPE...WITH SURFACE LOW NOW OFFSHORE WINDS HAVE
GONE WESTERLY ALL ACROSS THE COAST...WITH PRESSURES RISING. WINDS
APPEAR TO HAVE ALREADY MAXED OUT. WINDS ON THE COAST WILL BECOME
EAST TO NORTHEASTERLY OVER THE WEEKEND WITH THE LIKELIHOOD OF
ST/FOG. QUIETER WEATHER INLAND.

FOR THE WEST COAST...TEMPERATURES WARMING AS RIDGE BUILDS.
STRATOCUMULUS SEWARD PENINSULA NORTHWARD DIMINISHING WITH WARMING. SOME
MID-HI CLOUDS PERSISTING THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

FOR THE INTERIOR...LITTLE THUNDER EXPECTED THIS EVENING...AS THE
AIRMASS IS JUST A BIT TOO COOL. SOME THUNDER SOUTHEASTERN INTERIOR
SATURDAY...POSSIBLY SPREADING AS FAR WEST AS FAIRBANKS ON SUNDAY.

.AFG...WATCH/WARNING SUMMARY...
MARINE...SCA 14.
PUBLIC...NONE

RT MAY 02

Event by event

1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.

Wildfire, Middle Tanana Valley

When: June 1, 12:00 AM AST to June 10, 4:00 PM AST
Where: Middle Tanana Valley County, Two Rivers
Property damage: $20,000
Reported by: OTHER FEDERAL AGENCY

What these are

Wildfire: A fire burning in wildland vegetation, with its acreage and damage where known.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Alaska in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, June 2002

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: 5294405.