A fairly common weather pattern, from late fall through early spring, is when a strong off shore (east-northeast) pressure gradient develops across Southeast Alaska. This pattern often generates high winds, especially out of the eastern inlets and passes that dot the Canadian Border.
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.
The episode as NWS AJK wrote it up.
A fairly common weather pattern, from late fall through early spring, is when a strong off shore (east-northeast) pressure gradient develops across Southeast Alaska. This pattern often generates high winds, especially out of the eastern inlets and passes that dot the Canadian Border. This pattern also results in clear skies, very cold temperatures, dangerous wind chills and heavy freezing spray. It is an arctic outbreak. In the Juneau area, due to the mountainous terrain being perpendicular to Taku Inlet, a mountain wave/downslope high wind event is able to develop. This local, terrain induced event is known as the "Taku Winds." From Wednesday January 22 into Saturday morning January 25, a strong off shore pressure gradient developed across Southeast Alaska. The interior surface High peaked near 1058mb over the Northwest Territories. A low as deep as 986mb was over the North Pacific to create a synoptic scale pressure gradient of 72mb. At the onset of this three day high wind event, some damage occurred on the docks in downtown Juneau. The Taku winds lifted four 10,000 pound freight containers from a docked barge, breaking the chains that held them down, and dumped them into Gastineau Channel. Aside from that, only minor tree damage was reported during this time. Some measured peak wind gusts were 68 mph at both the Juneau Rock Dump (southern portion of downtown) and in Lynn Canal, and 76 mph on the Grey Islet sensor at the mouth of Portland Inlet. Mariners reported gusts in excess of 70 mph and heavy freezing spray at the mouth of Taku Inlet.
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 Juneau, AK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 22, 2:45 AM AST, 6 hours 15 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
245 AM AST WED JAN 22 2003
.SHORT RANGE...STRONG HIGH PRESSURE WILL REMAIN OVER NW CANADA...
AND EVEN STRENGTHEN A BIT. AN OCFNT WILL MOVE N INTO THE
CHARLOTTES THIS AFTERNOON. PRES GRAD BETWEEN THESE FEATURES WILL
INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY...CAUSING STRONGER OUTFLOW WINDS AND
INCREASING TAKU WIND THREAT FOR JUNEAU. CURRENT PRES GRADS WOULD
SUPPORT GENERAL 55-65KT OUTFLOW WINDS...WITH WINDS AS HIGH AS
80 KT OUT OF PASSES IN ZONE 22. WILL CONTINUE HIGH WIND WARNINGS
FOR 24/25 NEAR INTERIOR PASSES AND DOWNTOWN JUNEAU...AND ADD
ZONES 22...26...AND 29 FOR INTERIOR PASSES. WILL KEEP WIND ADVY
FOR THE REMAINING ZONES.
WITH FRONT MOVING N...CLOUDS ARE ALREADY INCREASING OVER THE S.
THESE HIGHER CLOUDS SHOULD MOVE N INTO THE NRN AREAS TODAY...BUT
WILL LIKELY REMAIN THIN ENOUGH TO GO WITH PARTLY CLOUDY. OVER THE
S...SOME PRECIP SHOULD MOVE INTO THE FAR SRN AREA DURING THE
AFTERNOON. LOOKS LIKE SNOW FOR THE MOST PART...WITH A MIX
POSSIBLE FAR S AND SRN CSTL AREAS. WITH SO MUCH DRY AIR BEING
BROUGHT IN AHEAD OF THE FRONT THOUGH...ANY SNOW AMOUNTS THROUGH
6 PM SHOULD BE UNDER AN INCH. WILL GO WITH LIGHT SNOW LIKELY BY
LATE AFTERNOON...POSSIBLY MIXING WITH RAIN FAR S FOR THE SRN
3 ZONES. INCRG CLOUDS WILL DO FOR 26/23...AND PARTLY CLOUDY
REMAINDER OF AREA.
.LONG RANGE...
FOR WEDNESDAY NIGHT...THE PRESSURE GRADIENT OVER THE NORTHERN
PANHANDLE WILL CONTINUE TO STAY STRONG SO EXPECT THE HIGH WINDS
TO CONTINUE THERE THROUGH THE NIGHT. IN THE SOUTHERN PANHANDLE
THE APPROACHING FRONT WILL WEAKEN THE GRADIENT AS IT MOVES INTO
THE AREA CAUSING THE WINDS TO EASE SOMEWHAT AS THE PRECIPITATION
MOVES IN DURING THE NIGHT. THE STRONG OFFSHORE GRADIENT SHOULD
KEEP THE PRECIPITATION LIGHT AND LIMIT IS TO THE SOUTHERN HALF OF
THE PANHANDLE. ON THURSDAY THE FRONT CONTINUES NORTH BUT FALLS
APART AS IT RUNS IN THE STRONGER OFFSHORE GRADIENT. I AM DOUBTFUL
THAT ANYTHING MORE THAN SOME CLOUDS WILL MAKE IT FARTHER NORTH
THAN ZONE 26.
THE NEXT BIG QUESTION IS THE TIMING ON THE FOLLOWING FRONT AND
HOW FAR NORTH IT WILL GET. CURRENTLY THE AVN HAS THE FRONT MOVING
INTO THE SOUTHERN PANHANDLE THURSDAY NIGHT/FRIDAY MORNING AND
CONTINUING NORTH DURING THE DAY. WITH THE SURFACE HIGH STILL IN
PLACE IN NORTHWEST CANADA THE MODEL MAY BE SPEEDING THINGS UP TOO
MUCH IN BRING THE MOISTURE NORTH. HOWEVER WHEN THE FRONT DOES
MOVE NORTH WE WILL BE LOOKING AT A GOOD SET UP FOR SNOW. THE
NORTHERLY SURFACE FLOW SHOULD KEEP THE NORTHERN PANHANDLE PLENTY
COLD WHILE THE OVERRUNNING WESTERLY FLOW WILL PROVIDE THE
NECESSARY MOISTURE.
DURING THE WEEKEND A LOW MOVES INTO THE GULF AND A SERIES OF
WAVES WILL MOVE INTO THE PANHANDLE. THIS WILL WARM THINGS UP AND
BRING A LOT MORE MOISTURE INTO THE AREA. DEPENDING ON THE
STRENGTH AND THE PERSISTENCE OF COLD AIR IN PLACE THIS COULD MEAN
A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF SNOW FOR AREAS LIKE THE NORTHERN
PANHANDLE AND HYDER AND PLENTY OF RAIN ELSEWHERE. BY EARLY NEXT
WEEK THE LOW IN THE GULF MOVES ONSHORE AND COOLER AIR RETURNS
SETTING US UP FOR A SNOW SHOWERY ENVIRONMENT ON MONDAY BEFORE THE
NEXT LOW DEVELOPS AND MOVES IN TO THE EASTERN GULF.
.AJK...WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES
PUBLIC...HIGH WIND WARNING FOR INTERIOR PASSES ZONES 22...24...25
...26...AND 29 AND DOWNTOWN JUNEAU AND DOUGLAS AREAS
IN ZONE 25
...WIND ADVISORY IN EXPOSED AREAS FOR 21..23..27..AND 28
MARINE...GALE...AREAS 1A..1B
SCA...AREA 2A
RWT/JER4 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, January 2003
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: 5341220, 5341221, 5341222, 5341223.