On 12/21, the arctic front remained stationary over central southeast Alaska. A 972 MB storm center was approaching from the southwest, and moved onto the south coast by early morning 12/22 and totally dissipated by the afternoon.
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.
On 12/21, the arctic front remained stationary over central southeast Alaska. A 972 MB storm center was approaching from the southwest, and moved onto the south coast by early morning 12/22 and totally dissipated by the afternoon. On Saturday night, a 955 MB storm center had developed to the southwest of the first one and moved to just off Sitka by Sunday afternoon, finally dissipating over the southern Panhandle on the Sunday night, 12/23.
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 Dec 20, 7:10 AM AKST, 16 hours 50 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION 1210 PM AST THU DEC 20 2007 .SYNOPSIS... .SHORT RANGE... IT SHAKES CONFIDENCE WHEN THE 12Z MODELS HAVE SIGNIFICANT SPREAD OF SOLUTIONS IN 24 HOUR PROJECTIONS BUT THATS BEEN THE STORY OF THIS WEEK. IN THIS CASE THE 12Z GFS APPEARS TO BE SUPERIOR TO ANYTHING ELSE BY INITIALIZATION. USING THE AK-GFS-40 THE LOW CENTER CONTINUES TO DEVELOP AS PER SATELLITE INDICATIONS AND TIMING. BY 00Z SAT THIS CENTER ENDS UP AT MIDDLETON ISLAND WHICH IS REASONABLE. THE 12Z OPERATIONAL GFS ALSO MATCHES SATELLITE POSITION WELL ON THE SYSTEM MENTIONED ABOVE AT 40N 167W AT 18Z TODAY. THIS DEVELOPER WILL HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE LONG TERM. EXPECT HIGH GALES TO DEVELOP TONIGHT ALONG THE COASTAL AND OUTSIDE WATERS WITH SMALL CRAFT WINDS FOR MUCH OF INNER CHANNELS. ADVISORY LEVEL WINDS WILL DEVELOP ALONG THE SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL PANHANDLE COAST...STARTING WITH 27 AND 23 AT MIDNIGHT...THEN 22 AND 28 AT 3 AM. ADDITIONALLY...COLD AIR IS SLOWLY BEING SCOURED OUT OF THE AREA AS FLOW HAS TURNED MORE SOUTHWESTERLY. PRECIPITATION WILL START OUT AS SNOW FOR MOST LOCATIONS AND TURN TO RAIN FROM SOUTH TO NORTH TONIGHT. THE EXCEPTION WILL BE IN THE NORTH WHERE COLDER AIR SINKING IN FROM CANADA WILL KEEP PRECIPITATION TYPE SNOW. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE SIGNIFICANT PARTICULARLY IN HAINES ALONG THE CHILKAT VALLEY. A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT AND WILL REVIEW THE POTENTIAL FOR A WARNING OR ADVISORY ACROSS THE NORTHERN INNER CHANNELS. .LONG RANGE... PATTERN INDICATES STEADY W-SW FLOW INTO SE AK THRU MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. EMBEDDED IN THE FLOW ARE AT LEAST THREE SEPARATE SHORT WAVES THAT HAVE DIFFERENT WEATHER AFFECTS WITH THEM. HAVE COORDINATED WITH ANCHORAGE AND VANCOUVER FCSTRS AND PUBLIC AND MARINE FORECASTS ARE IN GOOD AGREEMENT ACROSS BORDERS. FIRST WAVE CONTINUES TO LIFT NORTHWARD OFF THE COAST FRI NIGHT. THIS WILL HAVE BOTH DECENT PRECIP AMOUNTS AND GALE FORCE WINDS OVER COASTAL MARINE AREAS...EVEN STORM FORCE IN FAR NORTH ZONE 52. REGARDING PRECIP...CURRENT WINTER STORM WATCH FOR HAINES AREA FRI WILL LIKELY BE EXPANDED NW FROM THERE FRI NIGHT AND EARLY SAT ESPECIALLY FOR YAKUTAT ZONE. GFS IS CURRENT MODEL OF CHOICE AND IT DEPICTS VERY STRONG ISENTROPIC LIFT AND DEFORMATION ALONG WITH VERY MOIST AIR...POSSIBLY TAPPED INTO TROPICAL PLUME. END RESULT MAY BE A FOOT OF SNOW IN YAK ZONE OVER 12-18 HR PERIOD FRI NIGHT. THIS BEARS CLOSE WATCHING. SECOND SYSTEM IN THE SW FLOW IS CURRENTLY DEVELOPING EAST OF THE DATELINE AT 160W 38N IS WELL DEFINED BY GFS AND FCST BY MODELS TO AFFECT SE AK SUN. BECAUSE OF ITS WARM ORIGINS THERE WILL LIKELY BE A TEMPORARY RAISING OF SNOW LEVEL S AND EAST OF THE LOW CAUSING FCST ISSUES WITH THE RAIN-SNOW LINE. CURRENT FCSTS LOOK REASONABLE SHOWING RAIN INSTEAD OF SNOW SUN FROM ABOUT SITKA S AND EAT TO KETCHIKAN. PETERSBURG-WRANGELL ON THE EDGE BUT WITH COLD OUTFLOW STILL LIKELY FROM EASTERN BC WILL LEAN TOWARD SNOW WORDING FROM NORTHERN MISTY FJORDS TO CAPE SPENCER AND POINTS N. EARLY SUN LOOKS TO OFFER A SHORT BREAK IN PRECIP OVER NORTHERN ZONES BUT SNOW RETURNS THERE SUN NIGHT AND MON. YET ANOTHER SYSTEM TUE IS FCST TO TAKE SIMILAR TRACK...THAT IS LOOPING FROM WEST OF CHARLOTTES TO S PANHANDLE COAST THEN LIFT NORTHWARD. THIS ONE MAY CUT ACROSS PANHANDLE SOUTH OF JUNEAU INSTEAD OF CONTINUING UP COAST. IF THAT HAPPENS THE RAIN SNOW LINE SHOULD BE MORE DEFINITE. WET WESTERLY FLOW IS FORECAST TO PERSIST WELL INTO NEXT WEEK AND TEMPERATURES ARE PREDICTED TO BE AT OR BELOW AVERAGE ACROSS SE AK. TA .AJK...WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES PUBLIC...WIND ADVSRY...ZONES 22-23-27-28 STARTING TONIGHT WINTER STORM WATCH...ZONE 18 FRIDAY MORNING THRU AFTERNOON MARINE...GALE...ZONES 22-36-41-42-43-51-52 SMCR...ELSEWHERE
2 heavy snow, 2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Haines customs observed 17.0 inches of new snow in 24 hours ending 0800 on 12/22. Downtown Haines received 14.5 inches of new snow for the same time.|A trained spotter in Haines observed 16.3 inches on 12/22.
Skagway power had 6 inches of new snowfall in 12 hours ending at 0900 on 12/22.
Craig cooperative observer reported very windy conditions all day, 12/21. An observation at Hydaburg had measured gusts to 58 MPH at 1636 on 12/21.
Annette observed a measured gust to 53 MPH 0553 on 12/22. Analyses indicated that gusts to 70+ mph were common in the area of Port Chester as per local knowledge of the Annette office.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2007Every state in 2007This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, December 2007
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: 71912, 71913, 71905, 71907.