Name: Flood in Alaska, May 21 to 30, 2004
Start: 2004-05-21T12:00
End: 2004-05-30T12:00
Location: Alaska

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
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.

What happened

The episode as NWS AFG wrote it up.

Ice Jams formed on the Colville River due to rapid warmup in the Brooks Range, and caused flooding near the village of Nuiqsut and the coastal plain to the Colville River Delta. At Nuiqsut flood waters went over the road to the old airport; the town itself was not flooded nor were there major impacts to the town. Nonetheless, the water was 15 to 20 feet high, and was the worst residents had seen in 30 years. At Alpine Camp, a oil-drilling facility, floodwaters came to within 16 inches of the main pipeline. Water rose to within 14 inches of the lowest point of the access road connecting two drilling pads, which sit on gravel 4 to 6 feet above the ground. On the Colville Delta, a family residence located on an island there had half of the island covered with water, including the airstrip which was fully underwater. The above details were printed in the Anchorage Daily News.

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 20, 1:30 PM AST, 22 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 20, 1:30 PM AST, 22 hours 30 minutes before

NORTH ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
230 PM ADT THU MAY 20 2004

.DISCUSSION...THE WARM FRONT APPROACHING PASN AT THIS TIME IS
EXPECTED TO CONTINUE NORTHWARD...SPREADING RAIN INTO ZONES 213
AND 214 TONIGHT...ZONES 210/211/212/215 ON FRI...AND PRETTY MUCH
ALL OVER THE WEST COAST AND WESTERN INTERIOR FRI NIGHT. MAYBE A
SMALL SURFACE LOW (1020 MB) NEAR PAOT AROUND 4AM SAT. PROBABLY
NO MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION MAKING IT TO THE ARCTIC COAST...
THOUGH BARROW WOULD BE IN THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE REGIME FOR
FREEZING RAIN (FRI NIGHT) IF IT DID.

AS INDICATED ON WED...THE RIDGE ALOFT IS NOT SHARPENING UP ENOUGH
AHEAD OF THIS FRONT TO PREVENT PRECIPITATION FROM SPREADING OVER
THE TOP AND INTO THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN INTERIOR (FRI NIGHT/SAT)
...THOUGH QPFS LOOK LOW SOUTH OF ZONE 218. ALSO AS EARLIER
EXPECTED...THE WARM AIR COMING IN ALOFT AHEAD OF IT APPEARS
LIKELY TO SUPPRESS CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT OVER THE CENTRAL AND
EASTERN INTERIOR ON FRIDAY.

.HYDRO...FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH FRIDAY FOR THE DALTON
         HIGHWAY FROM PUMP STATION THREE TO ICE CUT (ZONE 206).
.FIRE WEATHER...RHS IN THE 20-35 PERCENT RANGE OVER MOST OF THE
         INTERIOR FRIDAY...BUT RAINFALL EVENT SATURDAY WITH
         HIGHER RHS.

.AFG...WATCH/WARNING/ADVISORIES...
PUBLIC...FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH FRIDAY FOR THE DALTON
         HIGHWAY FROM PUMP STATION THREE TO ICE CUT (ZONE 206).
MARINE...NONE.

DJH MAY 04

Event by event

1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Central Beaufort Sea Coast

When: May 21, 12:00 PM AST to May 30, 12:00 PM AST
Where: Central Beaufort Sea Coast forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

What these are

Flood: Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Alaska in 2004 Every state in 2004 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, May 2004

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: 5394498.