30.
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 moderate strength low moving into the eastern Gulf of Alaska brought heavy snow to the Haines area during the night of 1.30.
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 Jan 30, 2:04 PM AKST, 5 hours 26 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK 204 PM AKST MON JAN 30 2012 .SHORT TERM...OCCLUDED FRONT OVER THE ERN GULF WILL CONTINUE NNE THRU THE AREA TONIGHT AND TUE MORNING. LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE NE TO THE N-CENTRAL GULF BY TUE MORNING. A SMALL LOW PRESSURE AREA WILL MOVE NE TO THE SRN PANHANDLE BY LATE TUE AFTERNOON. USED THE 12Z ECMWF DUE TO ITS SUPERIOR INITIALIZATION ON THE FRONT AND LOWS. MAIN FORECAST ISSUE WILL BE TIMING THE PTYPE TRANSITION. AIRMASS BEHIND THE FRONT IS RATHER MILD SO AS FRONT MOVES THRU EXPECT PRECIP TO GO OVER TO RAIN. HOWEVER...THE FRONT MAY GO ALOFT AS IT MOVES OVER THE FAR NRN INNER CHANNEL AREA TONIGHT...SLOWING DOWN THE NWD TIMING OF PRECIP CHANGEOVER SOME THERE. THE PAYA AREA IS EVEN TRICKIER AS THEIR MIX/CHANGEOVER WILL BE PEGGED TO WHEN LOW LEVEL WINDS SHIFT FROM ENE TO ESE OR SE. MODELS DIFFER ON TIMING THIS...AND BASED ON THE 12Z ECMWF...WINDS WOULD SHIFT TO SE BY 12Z TONIGHT. THINK THIS WILL KEEP THEM FROM GETTING TO 6+ INCHES OF SNOWFALL TONIGHT SO WILL BE DROPPING THE WS WATCH FOR THEM. DO NOT EVEN THINK THEY WILL GET TO ADVY LEVELS AS HEAVIEST PRECIP WILL ARRIVE DURING TIME OF THE WINDS TURNING SELY. THE PAHN AREA IS A DIFFERENT STORY...AND WILL BE ISSUING A WW ADVY FOR THEM TONIGHT INTO EARLY TUE MORNING. FURTHER S ALONG THE PAJN-PAEL CORRIDOR...SNOW MAY ACCUMULATE UP TO 3 INCHES BEFORE IT MIXES WITH OR CHANGES TO RAIN LATE TONIGHT. S OF THAT AREA SHOULD BE ALL RAIN BY TIME FORECAST GOES OUT LATE THIS AFTERNOON. OTHERWISE...WILL HAVE TEMPS SLOWLY RISING OVER THE NRN HALF OF THE AREA TONIGHT...WITH LITTLE CHANGE OVER THE S. WINDS SHOULD PEAK AT SCA LEVELS AHEAD OF THE FRONT AND ON E SIDE OF LOW MOVING INTO THE N-CENTRAL GULF. ONLY GOING SCA WINDS FOR THAT SMALL LOW MOVING NE INTO THE SRN AREA TUE...BUT IT BEING A RATHER SMALL LOW THERE COULD BE A LOCALLY STRONGER BAND OF WINDS ON ITS SE SIDE...SO LATER SHIFTS WILL HAVE TO WATCH THIS CLOSELY. && .LONG TERM...MAIN FOCUS OF THE EXTENDED PERIOD IS THE STRONG SYSTEM APPROACHING THE PANHANDLE ON WED. CURRENTLY A WEAK DISTURBANCE SW OF THE ALEUTIANS THIS FEATURE WILL START INTERACTING WITH THE LEFT EXIT REGION OF A 100 KT 500 MB JET STREAK EARLY TUESDAY. THE CLOSE ASSOCIATION OF THE MID LEVEL FEATURE WILL STICK WITH THE SYSTEM UNTIL WED WHEN THE SURFACE LOW SEPARATES FROM THE EXIT REGION AND GETS LEFT BEHIND IN THE WESTERN GULF. BY THIS TIME THE LOW WILL HAVE STRENGTHENED TO AROUND 944 MB. THE LOW WILL DRIFT NORTH AND FILL IN THROUGH FRI. THE ASSOCIATED FRONT WILL BE THE MAIN WORRY FOR US AS IT PLOWS INTO THE PANHANDLE WED THROUGH WED NIGHT. PRECIP WILL BE ONE HALF OF THAT PROBLEM AS FOR MOST AREAS OF THE PANHANDLE TEMPERATURES WILL BE NEAR FREEZING WITH 850 MB TEMPS WARMING UP ABOVE -6 C AS EARLY AS WED MIDDAY FOR MOST OF THE PANHANDLE. THIS IS WARM ENOUGH THAT MOST AREAS SHORT OF THE EXTREME NORTH MAY START OUT AS SNOW BUT QUICKLY CHANGE OVER TO RAIN. AND WITH FORECAST QPF VALUES RANGING FROM 3 TENTHS TO UP TO .75 INCHES, AREAS THAT STILL HAVE A SIGNIFICANT SNOW PACK MAY BE FACING HEAVY SNOW LOADS ON ROOFS AND PONDING OF WATER WHERE ICE AND SNOW BLOCK DRAINAGE. NORTH OF HAINES AND SKAGWAY, THE PROBLEM SHIFTS FROM RAIN ON SNOW PACK TO PUTTING MORE SNOW ON TOP OF WHAT IS ALREADY THERE AS AREAS UP THE HAINES AND KLONDIKE HIGHWAYS MAY SEE SOME SIGNIFICANT SNOW OUT OF THIS SYSTEM. PRECIP LIGHTENS UP AND CHANGES TO SHOWERS BY THURS. THE SECOND HALF OF PROBLEM OF THE FRONT WILL BE THE WIND THAT IT BRINGS WITH IT. AREAS OUT IN THE GULF WILL BE EXPERIENCING STORM FORCE WINDS WED PARTICULARLY IN THE NORTHERN GULF WHERE THE USUAL BARRIER JET WILL BE SETTING UP AS THE FRONT COMES NORTHWARD. FARTHER SOUTH THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE ENCROACHING FRONT AND A BUILDING RIDGE OVER BRITISH COLUMBIA WILL BUILD UP THE PRESSURE GRADIENT OVER THE SOUTHERN PANHANDLE WED EVENING. 850 MB WINDS ARE FORECAST TO EXCEED 70 KT WHICH COULD MEAN GUST TO 60 MPH AT THE SURFACE WED EVENING. OTHER INNER CHANNEL AREAS MAY SEE HIGH ENOUGH GUSTS FOR STRONG WIND HEADLINES TO BE NEEDED WED NIGHT. MODEL AGREEMENT IS FAIRLY GOOD FOR THIS SYSTEM WITH THE NAM BEING A BIT OF AN OUTLIER WITH FASTER FRONTAL SPEED. DECIDED TO APPLY A BLEND WITH MORE WEIGHT TO THE 12Z EC WITH SOME LESSER AMOUNTS OF THE GFS THROWN IN TO GET A DECENT AVERAGE FROM THE SMALL DIFFERENCES STILL PRESENT BETWEEN THE MODELS. PAST FRI MODEL AGREEMENT IS STILL IN LIMBO WITH THE MODEL STILL NOT AGREEING ON THE NUMBER AND TRACK OF VARIOUS WEAK SMALL SYSTEMS. THE ONLY PLACE THEY SOMEWHAT AGREE IS ON THE OVERALL MID LEVEL PATTERN OF A RIDGE BUILDING OVER THE PANHANDLE AND INTERIOR OVER THE WEEKEND WITH A TROUGH DIGGING INTO THE NORTH CENTRAL PACIFIC. WENT WITH HPC DATA FOR THE EXTENDED RANGE FOR ITS USE OF THE MORE CONSISTENT ENSEMBLE MEANS. FORECAST CONFIDENCE IS ABOUT AVERAGE OUT TO FRI THEN DROPS TO POOR AFTER THAT. .AJK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... PUBLIC...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 9 AM AKST TUESDAY FOR AKZ019. MARINE...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR PKZ021-022-033>036-041>043-051-052. && RWT/EAL
1 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
The Haines area had storm totals ranging from 8 to 11 inches with this event. The snow was already deep by midnight on the Chilkat Peninsula with 11 inches of new snow measured by a spotter. Another spotter had 10 inches by morning. Up the highway Haines customs only got 8.0 inches.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, January 2012
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: 365144.