Southerly flow aloft brought significant moisture over cold air at the surface for the Eastern Gulf Coast. 9 inches of new snow on the evening of 3/29 in eight hours ending at 0100 on 3/30.
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.
Southerly flow aloft brought significant moisture over cold air at the surface for the Eastern Gulf Coast. Yakutat measured 6.9 inches of new snow on the evening of 3/29 in eight hours ending at 0100 on 3/30.
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 Mar 29, 3:28 PM AKST, 1 hour 32 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK
428 PM AKDT FRI MAR 29 2013
.SHORT TERM...HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE CURRENTLY OVER THE AK
PANHANDLE WILL TRACK EASTWARD AS AN OCCLUDED FRONT ASSOCIATED
WITH A 1000 MB LOW NEAR SAND POINT MOVES OVER THE PANHANDLE COAST
TONIGHT THEN OVER THE PANHANDLE THROUGH SATURDAY. WAVE
DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE FRONT CAN BE SEEN IN WATER VAPOR SATELLITE
IMAGERY AND WILL MOVE FROM THE WESTERN GULF TOWARDS YAKUTAT
FRIDAY NIGHT. THE SAND POINT LOW WILL WEAKEN BUT NOT MOVE MUCH
FURTHER EAST AS A HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE BUILDS OVER THE AK GULF
BEHIND THE OCCLUDED FRONT SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
WINDS OVER THE AK GULF WILL INCREASE AS THE FRONT ADVANCES THIS
EVENING. THE NORTHERN GULF WINDS WILL REACH GALE FORCE AS BARRIER
JET DEVELOPS ALONG THE FRONT WITH SMALL CRAFT WINDS EXTENDING TO
CAPE EDGECUMBE. WINDS WILL DROP OFF QUICKLY BY SATURDAY MORNING
AS THE FRONT PASSES. INNER CHANNEL WINDS WILL INCREASE WITH THE
ADVANCING FRONT WITH STRONGEST WINDS DEVELOPING OVER THE NORTHERN
EAST-WEST ORIENTED CHANNELS.
PRECIP HAS BEGUN OVER THE NORTHWESTERN PANHANDLE AND WILL
PROGRESS TO THE SOUTHEAST TONIGHT WITH CATEGORICAL PRECIP OVER
THE PANHANDLE WITH THE EXCEPTION OF FAR SOUTHERN AREAS. PRECIP
WILL BEGIN TO DIMINISH THROUGH THE DAY TOMORROW AS THE FRONT
PASSES OVER THE REGION. PRECIP TYPE AND SNOW ACCUMULATION ARE THE
DIFFICULT QUESTION FOR TONIGHT. THIS FRONT HAS A LONG FETCH OF
DEEP LAYER MOISTURE AS SEEN IN THE MODEL SOUNDINGS AND FROM
SATELLITE IMAGERY. SIX HOUR QPF VALUES AROUND ONE QUARTER OF AN
INCH HAVE BEEN SHOWN IN MOST MODELS WITH THE GFS INDICATING
6 HOUR QPF VALUES NEARING ONE HALF OF AN INCH. OVERNIGHT
TEMPERATURES FOR POINTS NORTH OF SUMNER STRAIT WILL BE JUST LOW
ENOUGH FOR A RAIN SNOW MIX WITH THE DEW POINTS IN THE MID 20S
COLD ENOUGH FOR SNOW. AS THE FRONT MOVES IN A WARMER AIR MASS
WILL ADVANCE AND BEGIN TO TRANSITION SNOW TO MOSTLY RAIN BY
SATURDAY MORNING. WITH THIS SET UP WHILE THE QPF VALUES WOULD
GIVE MORE SIGNIFICANT SNOW AMOUNTS FEEL THE WARMER TEMPERATURE
WILL KEEP PRECIP AS A RAIN SNOW MIX OR HEAVY WET SNOW AND THUS
KEEP ACCUMULATIONS DOWN. YAKUTAT WILL GET THE BRUNT OF SNOW FROM
THE SYSTEM AS THE DEVELOPING FRONTAL WAVE MOVES DIRECTLY TOWARDS
THEM. FOR NOW HAVE KEEP ACCUMULATIONS THERE IN THE 2 TO 4 INCH
RANGE, JUST BELOW ADVISORY LEVELS. FOR THE REST OF THE NORTHERN
AND CENTRAL LOCATIONS HAVE ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES WITH
HIGHEST AMOUNTS IN HAINES AND ALONG THE HAINES HIGHWAY.
NEW MODELS WERE FAIRLY CONSISTENT FOR PRESSURE AND WINDS WITH
LITTLE CHANGE TO THE NEW FORECAST PACKAGE. SOME DIFFERENCE IN POP
FIELDS AS THE FRONT SEEMS TO BE SLOWING DOWN A BIT TODAY. USED
MORE NAM IN THE FORECAST TO SLOW DOWN PRECIP AS ECMWF WAS THE
MOST PROGRESSIVE MOVING THE FRONT OVER THE PANHANDLE TONIGHT.
FORECAST CONFIDENCE IS ABOVE AVERAGE WITH THE GENERAL SYNOPTIC
PATTERN BUT THERE IS HIGHER UNCERTAINTY WITH THE PRECIP TYPE AND
ANY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS FOR TONIGHT.
&&
.LONG TERM...HIGH PRESSURE SITUATED OVER THE PANHANDLE AT THE
START OF THE LONG RANGE FORECAST PERIOD WILL GIVE WAY EARLY ON TO
A WAVE THAT DEVELOPS ALONG A FRONTAL BOUNDARY IN THE CENTRAL GULF
AND MERGES WITH A LOW CURRENTLY SOUTH OF THE ALASKAN PENINSULA.
RESULTING FRONT WILL BISECT THE SURFACE HIGH AS IT PUSHES EAST
INTO THE EASTERN GULF SUNDAY NIGHT AND SPREAD CATEGORICAL POP FROM
NORTH TO SOUTH DOWN THE PANHANDLE THROUGH MONDAY AND TAPER OFF. A
BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL LINGER OVER THE PANHANDLE THROUGH
MONDAY NIGHT BEFORE ANOTHER SURFACE PRESSURE RIDGE BUILDS INTO THE
AREA FROM THE SOUTHWEST ON TUESDAY. THIS FEATURE WILL BE VERY
SHORT LIVED AS ANOTHER LOW AND ASSOCIATED FRONT MOVE INTO THE
CENTRAL GULF ON WEDNESDAY.
TEMPERATURES REMAINING A BIT BELOW NORMAL FOR THIS TIME OF THE
YEAR AT THE THE BEGINNING OF THE LONG RANGE FORECAST. A WARM WEDGE
OF LOW LEVEL AIR WILL EXTEND ABOUT HALF WAY UP THE PANHANDLE
THROUGH EARLY MONDAY MORNING. THIS WARMER AIR WILL BE PUSHED SOUTH
BY COLDER LOW LEVEL AIR BEING USHERED IN FROM THE WEST BY AN UPPER
LEVEL LOW THAT WILL SHIFT THE NORTHERN SHORE OF THE GULF THIS
WEEKEND AND THEN JUMP INLAND NEAR YAKUTAT AND CONTINUE EAST INTO
CANADA. THIS COLDER LOW LEVEL AIR IS REINFORCED BY ANOTHER UPPER
LOW AND ASSOCIATED MID LEVEL COLD AIR ADVECTION. THIS ONE IS
EXPECTED TO CROSS THE COAST CLOSER TO THE DIXON ENTRANCE, THUS IT
WILL DRAW THE LOW LEVEL COLD AIR SIGNIFICANTLY FARTHER SOUTH.
BIGGEST DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MODES TODAY CONCERNS THE STRENGTH
AND SOUTHERLY EXTENT OF THE LOW LEVEL COLD AIR. GFS IS WARMER THAN
ECMWF IN THIS REGARD THROUGHOUT MUCH OF THE UPCOMING WEEK AND
SIGNIFICANTLY SO BY NEXT THURSDAY. FAVORED ECMWF TODAY FOR
NUMEROUS REASONS, THUS, TEMPS WERE ADJUSTED DOWN BY AS MUCH AS A
FEW DEGREES AT TIMES DURING THE UPCOMING WEEK. BLENDED IN HPC TO
VARYING DEGREES FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND ONWARDS. FORECAST
CONFIDENCE IS AVERAGE.
.AJK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
PUBLIC...NONE.
MARINE...GALE WARNING FOR PKZ052.
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR PKZ022-042-043-051.
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY DUE TO SEAS FOR PKZ041.
&&
PRB/FRITSCH1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Yakutat WSO measured 6.6 inches of new snow on 3/29 and 1.7 inches of new snow during the early morning of 3/30. Storm total was 6.9 inches in 8 hours due to compacting.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, March 2013
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: 434430.