A complex low over the entire Gulf of Alaska brought moisture and over-running snow to the north Gulf coast on 3/19 and 3/20.
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 complex low over the entire Gulf of Alaska brought moisture and over-running snow to the north Gulf coast on 3/19 and 3/20.
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 Mar 19, 5:00 AM AKST, 16 hours 5 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
1100 AM ADT WED MAR 19 2008
.SYNOPSIS...
.SHORT RANGE...NAM NOT DEPICTING A SHORT WAVE AT 500 MB AS WELL
AS OTHERS. THIS FEATURE CLEARLY EVIDENT IN SATELLITE IMAGERY.
OVERALL JET PATTERN DEPICTED BY GFS VERY SIMILAR TO OTHERS...BUT
INTENSITY OF THE JET CORE IS OVERDONE OVER WASHINGTON STATE AS
EVIDENCED BY SATELLITE WINDS. SUSPECT THIS IS THE CASE AS WELL
OVER THE CENTRAL ALEUTIANS. GFS SURFACE WINDS MAP VERY WELL TO
SCATTEROMETER DATA...HOWEVER UKMET AND ECMWF NOT MATCHING UP
TEMPORALLY WELL ENOUGH TO MAKE ADEQUATE COMPARISONS. NAM CP IN
LINE WITH OTHER MODELS AT THE END OF THE SHORT RANGE FORECAST
PERIOD HOWEVER BELIEVE NAM IS TRACKING THE SYSTEM TOO FAR TO THE
EAST. WILL THEREFORE USE GFS AS PRIMARY GUIDANCE TODAY.
AN AREA OF ENHANCED VORTICITY THAT MOVE ASHORE OVER THE CENTRAL
PANHANDLE EARLY THIS MORNING HAS REACHED THE INNER CHANNELS AND
SNOWFALL HAS PICKED UP ACCORDINGLY AT ANGOON AND JUNEAU. ANOTHER
PIECE OF UPPER LEVEL ENERGY DEPICTED IN THE MODEL IS CURRENTLY
JUST OFFSHORE AND UPPER TROUGH IS EVIDENT IN BOTH IR AND VIS
IMAGERY AND EXTENDS DOWN TO THE DIXON ENTRANCE. ENHANCED SHOWER
ACTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH THIS FEATURE IS JUST NOW BECOMING
VISIBLE ON THE RADAR. ACCORDINGLY...MOST LOCATIONS WILL SEE
SUSTAINED SHOWER ACTIVITY THROUGHOUT THE DAY TODAY WITH PERIODS
OF ENHANCED SHOWERS PULLING THE RAIN-SNOW LINE DOWN TO THE
SURFACE. SOME ACCUMULATION MAY RESULT IN SOME LOCATIONS BUT AM
NOT EXPECTING MORE THAN ABOUT 1 INCH AS THE SNOW WILL BE MELTING
NEARLY AS FAST AS IT FALLS. EXCEPTION IS YAKUTAT WHICH SHOULD SEE
THE STRONGEST SHOWER ACTIVITY THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THEY
MAY SEE 2 NEW INCHES BEFORE THE NIGHT IS THROUGH.
ELSEWHERE...SHOWER ACTIVITY SHOULD WIND DOWN FROM WEST TO EAST
OVER THE NORTHERN PANHANDLE FROM LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THROUGH
THE NIGHT TONIGHT. SOUTHERN PANHANDLE LOCATIONS WILL LIKELY NOT
SEE AS MUCH OF A BREAK FROM THE SHOWERS...IF AT ALL...BEFORE
PRE-FRONTAL RAIN AND SNOW ARRIVED FROM THE SOUTHWEST EARLY
THURSDAY MORNING. MOST SOUTHERN PANHANDLE LOCATIONS WILL SEE AT
LEAST SOME ACCUMULATION AND SOME LOCATIONS WILL LIKELY SEE 2 TO 3
INCHES OF SNOW THROUGH TOMORROW AFTERNOON. RAIN AND SNOW MAY HOLD
OFF OVER THE NORTHERN INNER CHANNELS UNTIL THE BEGINNING OF THE
LONG RANGE FORECAST PERIOD THURSDAY EVENING.
IN TERMS OF WIND...SOUTHEAST GALES ARE CURRENTLY IN THE FORECAST
FOR OFFSHORE WATERS THE SOUTHERN COASTAL MARINE ZONES WITH SMALL
CRAFT ELSEWHERE AND OVER THE INNER CHANNELS. AM NOT ANTICIPATING
MANY CHANGES THERE AND NO PUBLIC ZONE WIND ADVISORIES
ANTICIPATED...AT LEAST THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON. FCF
.LONG RANGE...THE LOW IN THE CENTRAL GULF LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON
WILL MOVE SLIGHTLY NORTHEAST AND DISSIPATE BY MIDDAY FRIDAY AS
THE NEXT LOW ENTERING THE CENTRAL GULF. LONG WAVE PATTERN
CONTINUES OVER ALASKA REGION WITH A STALLED LOW IN THE CENTRAL
GULF FROM FRIDAY THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK. MODELS ARE IN GENERAL
AGREEMENT...YIELDING A SLIGHTLY ABOVE AVERAGE FORECAST
CONFIDENCE. THE STALLED LOW IN THE CENTRAL GULF WILL MOVE BACK
AND FORTH LITTLE BIT OVER ITS LIFE TIME...AND GENERATE A
SECONDARY LOW EAST OF ITS PERIPHERY ACROSS THE EASTERN GULF
SATURDAY AFTERNOON. THESE TWO LOWS IN THE GULF WILL TAKE TURNS TO
PLAY A MAJOR ROLE FOR A POSSIBLE SPRING EQUINOX HEAVY
PRECIPITATION EVENT. ONSHORE FLOW WILL PERSIST OVER THE AREA AND
THE BOUNDARY LAYER TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN COLD ENOUGH. MODEL
QPF IS IMPRESSIVE AND THUS SNOW AMOUNT LOOKS UNREALISTICALLY
HIGH. WITH NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN SYNOPTIC SCALE
PATTERN...EXPECT MORE SNOW OVER NORTHERN HALF AND SNOW/RAIN MIX
IN THE SOUTHERN AND COASTAL ZONES LATE THURSDAY NIGHT INTO THE
WEEKEND. A SERIES OF FRONTS WILL SWEEP ACROSS THE EASTERN GULF
AND SOUTHEAST ALASKA THROUGH THE WEEKEND WITH GALE FORCE WINDS
FOR ENTIRE COASTAL WATERS...ESPECIALLY FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND
NIGHT. THE LOW BEGINS FILLING EARLY MONDAY MORNING AND CONTINUES
TO WEAKEN AS IT SLIDES SOUTHEASTWARD THROUGH MID WEEK. AHN
.AJK...WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES
PUBLIC...NONE
MARINE...GALES PKZ041>042
SMCR ALL REMAINING MARINE ZONES1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
The NWS office at the Yakutat airport measured 8.1 inches of snow from midnight to midnight on 3/19, while reporting snow almost every hour that day. It is estimated that outlying areas, especially near the mountains, may have received up to 16 inches of new snow.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, March 2008
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: 89407.