A deep storm moved into the Eastern Aleutians on the afternoon of 11/30. Warm, moist air with the associated front moved over the Eastern Gulf Coast which had cold air at lower levels.
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 deep storm moved into the Eastern Aleutians on the afternoon of 11/30. Warm, moist air with the associated front moved over the Eastern Gulf Coast which had cold air at lower levels. The result was heavy snow for Yakutat during the night of 11/30 into the early morning hours of 12/1. Yakutat got nearly six inches of new snow in a few hours around midnight. Snow rapidly changed to rain around 4 AM AKST on 12/1.
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 Nov 30, 2:44 PM AKST, 9 hours 17 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK
244 PM AKST MON NOV 30 2009
.SHORT TERM...RIDGE WILL CONTINUE TO BUILD OVER AND JUST E OF
THE AREA TONIGHT...THEN DRIFT E OF THE AREA TUE. COMPLEX FRONTAL
SYSTEM OVER THE FAR WRN GULF WILL DRIFT SLIGHTLY EWD THRU TUE. A
WEAK LOW PRESSURE AREA AND WARM FRONT WILL MOVE N INTO THE
CENTRAL AND ERN GULF TUE.
MAIN FORECAST CONCERNS WILL BE HOW FAR E PRECIP WILL GET
TONIGHT...AND PTYPE/AMTS. WARM ADVECTION WILL DEVELOP IN THE
850-700 MB LAYER TONIGHT OVER THE AREA...BUT THE BUILDING RIDGE
WILL LIKELY KEEP THE UVVS GENERALLY 700 MB AND BELOW...EXCEPT THE
PAYA AREA WILL SEE A DEEPER UVV AREA AS RIDGE BUILDING WILL BE
STRONGEST TO THE E OF THERE. ATTM...AM GOING TO GO WITH LIKELY
POPS OVER MUCH OF THE NRN MAIN PANHANDLE AREA...AND CAT POPS FOR
PAYA TONIGHT. FOR TUE...THE DEEP LAYER FLOW STARTS BACKING AND
BECOMES MORE ELY IN THE LOWER LEVELS AS THE LOW PRESSURE WAVE AND
WARM FRONT MOVE NWD...AND THIS WILL LIKELY CAUSE PRECIP TO
DIMINISH OVER THE MAIN PANHANDLE AREA TUE MORNING.
HOWEVER...PRECIP WITH THE LOW AND WARM FRONT WILL MOVE TO THE
OUTER COAST BY LATE TUE AFTERNOON SO WILL GO WITH LIKELY POPS FOR
THERE WITH INNER CHANNELS DRYING OUT FOR A SHORT PERIOD.
AS FAR AS PTYPE/AMTS GO...PRECIP SHOULD BEGIN AS SNOW OVER THE
NRN AREA AS MUCH OF THE INITIAL WARMING WILL BE WELL ALOFT. LOWER
LAYERS WILL SLOWLY WARM LATER TONIGHT AND TUE...WITH THE PAYA AREA
SEEING A FASTER WARMING DUE TO INCREASING SE FLOW IN LOWER LEVELS.
SO PAYA SHOULD SEE THEIR SNOW CHANGE OVER TO RAIN DURING THE
OVERNIGHT HOURS TONIGHT...WHILE NRN CHANNELS WILL SEE A COMPLETE
CHANGEOVER SOMETIME TUE MORNING. AS FOR AMTS...THE MAX UVV IS NEAR
-6 TO -8C TEMP LAYER ALOFT OVER MAIN PANHANDLE...NOT FAVORABLE FOR
SNOW DENDRITE GROWTH...AND DEPTH OF LIFT IS LIMITED BY RIDGE
BUILDING ALOFT. WILL KEEP PRECIP AMTS ON THE LIGHT SIDE...PROBABLY
A TENTH OF AN INCH OR LESS LIQUID EQUIVALENT TONIGHT OVER THE MAIN
PANHANDLE. WILL KEEP SNOW ACCUMS OVER MAIN PANHANDLE TO AN INCH OR
LESS. MAX UVV AROUND PAYA WILL BE CLOSER TO -10C WHICH IS BOTTOM
END OF DENDRITE GROWTH AREA...AND LIFTING LAYER WILL BE DEEPER SO
PRECIP AMTS SHOULD BE HIGHER...LIKELY AROUND ONE-HALF INCH
TONIGHT. EXPECT FIRST HALF OF TONIGHT TO BE ALL SNOW BUT IT WILL
BE ON WET SIDE. WILL GO WITH 1-3 INCHES OF SNOW FOR PAYA TONIGHT
BEFORE MIXING THEN CHANGING TO RAIN OVERNIGHT.
OTHERWISE...WINDS WILL PICK UP OVER THE ERN GULF TONIGHT AS FRONT
TO THE W CREEPS CLOSER TO THE AREA...AND A SECOND WIND BOOST
SHOULD OCCUR OVER THE FAR ERN GULF AND MAIN PANHANDLE AREA TUE AS
LOW AND WARM FRONT MOVE NWD INTO THE ERN GULF. GALES SHOULD OCCUR
OVER THE FAR WRN GULF MARINE AREAS TONIGHT...THEN DEVELOP OVER THE
ERN GULF MARINE AREA TUE. WILL SEE SCA LEVEL WINDS DEVELOP OVER
THE MORE E-W INNER CHANNELS TUE. LYNN CANAL WILL LIKELY SEE SCA
LEVEL S WINDS TUE DUE TO SW FLOW ALOFT LOWERING PRESSURES OVER THE
FAR NRN AREA AND SRN YUKON...ENHANCING S PRES GRADIENTS. PAGY
COULD GET TO MIN ADVY LEVEL BY LATE THIS EVENING...BUT FOR NOW
WILL KEEP THEM JUST BELOW ADVY LEVELS. OUTER COAST MAY ALSO GET
NEAR ADVY LEVEL WINDS LATE TUE...BUT AGAIN WILL HOLD OFF AS THERE
IS A BIT OF UNCERTAINTY ON HOW STRONG THAT LOW MOVING N WILL BE.
&&
.LONG TERM...FRONT CONTINUES EASTWARD THOUGH THE PANHANDLE
WEDNESDAY...A FAIR BIT OF MOISTURE WITH FRONT. MAJORITY OF THE
PRECIPITATION LOOKS TO RAIN TUESDAY NIGHT... EXCEPT FOR THE FAR
NORTHERN PORTIONS OF THE GLACIER BAY AND NORTHER LYNN CANAL WHERE
SOME COLD AIR DRAINAGE FROM NORTH WINDS WILL HOLD ENOUGH TO COLD
AIR FOR SOME WET SNOW. WILL CONTINUE TO REVIEW AND CHECK THE SNOW
AMOUNT THROUGH THE AFTER NOON TO ISSUE TIME.
AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH IN THE SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT WILL USHER OUT
THE PRECIPITATION AS A RIDGE BUILDS OVER THE CENTRAL GULF FROM A
DEEP DEVELOPING SYSTEM SOUTH OF THE ALEUTIANS. THE SURFACE HIGH
WILL CONTINUE TO BUILD INTO NORTHWEST CANADA REACH FOR 1050 MB AS
THE UPPER LEVEL BLOCKING RIDGE FORMS FRIDAY INTO SATURDAY. THIS
RIDGE WILL BECOME THE DOMINATE FEATURE FOR SOUTHEAST ALASKA INTO
NEXT WEEK...WITH PROLONGED DRY PERIOD. WITHOUT AN ESTABLISH
AREA OF ARCTIC AIR DOESNT LOOK LIKE THERE WILL A SIGNIFICANT COULD
OUT BREAK..MAYBE JUST A LITTLE COOL DOWN.
MODELS HAD SOME DISCREPANCY FROM AROUND LATE THURSDAY INTO
SATURDAY HAVING TO DO WITH WHERE A CUTOFF UPPER LEVEL LOW WAS
POSITIONED. WENT WITH HPC AND ECMWF SOLUTIONS THAT PLACED THIS LOW
WEST OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST INSTEAD NORTH OF MONTANA.
CONFIDENCE IS ABOVE AVERAGE EVEN OUT TO THE LATER PERIODS AS
MAJORITY OF THE LONG RANGE MODELS AGREE ON THE BLOCKING FEATURE.
.AJK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
PUBLIC...NONE.
MARINE...GALE WARNING FOR PKZ041>043-051-052.
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR PKZ011-012-021-022-032>036.
&&
RWT/BEZENEK1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
WSO Yakutat measured 5.8 inches of new snow at 2353 on the night of 11/30. An additional 0.3 inches fell before 0400 on 12/1 for a storm total of over 6 inches for a few hours around midnight. The snow changed rapidly to rain around 0400 on 12/1 and melted away very quickly.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, December 2009
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: 205134.