Name: Funnel Cloud in Alaska, May 25, 2004
Start: 2004-05-25T17:00
End: 2004-05-25T17:05
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.

An apparrent weak funnel cloud a few miles south of Fairbanks was sighted by a National Park Service meteorologist while driving on Fort Wainwright. Two on-duty NWS meteorologists also reported the same shortly thereafter.

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 25, 1:30 PM AST, 3 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 25, 1:30 PM AST, 3 hours 30 minutes before

NORTH ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
230 PM ADT TUE MAY 25 2004

.DISCUSSION...LIGHT RAIN PERSISTS OVER INTERIOR ALASKA SOUTHEAST
OF A LINE FROM OLD CROW TO DELTA. A SUMMERY CONVECTIVE REGIME HAS
BECOME ESTABLISHED OVER INTERIOR ALASKA...AND WILL SPREAD
SOUTHEAST THIS EVENING. WE MAY EVEN SEE SOME CONVECTION OVER
ZONE 208 AND EASTERN INTERIOR SECTIONS OF ZONE 210 THIS EVENING...
THOUGH THOSE AREAS ARE EXPECTED TO STABILIZE BY WED AFTERNOON.
OTHERWISE...WE EXPECT A CONVECTIVE REGIME TO PERSIST OVER THE
INTERIOR (WITH SOME VARIATIONS IN DETAIL) THROUGH FRIDAY.

HIGH PRESSURE WILL ALSO PERSIST OVER THE ARCTIC OCEAN NORTH
OF ALASKA. SATELLITE PIC SHOW PLENTY OF LOW CLOUDS UPSTREAM.

THE TRAJECTORY OVER THE WEST COAST WILL EVENTUALLY DRY OUT PAOT
AND PAUN...BUT OTHER AREAS (PORTIONS OF ZONES 213 AND 210...207
W OF PAVL) ARE LIKELY TO REMAIN (MOSTLY) IN THE SOUP.

.HYDRO...NO SIGNIFICANT ISSUES.
.FIRE WEATHER...MODERATELY CONVECTIVE CONDITIONS THIS EVENING
          AND WED AFTERNOON/EVENING. OTHERWISE NO SIGNIFICANT
          ISSUES.

.AFG...WATCH/WARNING/ADVISORIES...
PUBLIC...NONE.
MARINE...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY AREA 11A.

DJH MAY 04

Event by event

1 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.

Funnel Cloud, Middle Tanana Valley

When: May 25, 5:00 PM AST to 5:05 PM AST
Where: Middle Tanana Valley County, Fairbanks
Reported by: METEOROLOGIST(NON NWS)

What these are

Funnel Cloud: A rotating column of cloud extending from a thunderstorm that did not reach the ground.

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: 5394497.