Flood in Alaska, August 17 to 18, 2014

Name: Flood in Alaska, August 17 to 18, 2014
Start: 2014-08-17T15:00
End: 2014-08-18T09:00
Location: Alaska

August 17 to 18, 2014 · NWS AJK · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS AJK wrote it up.

Another warm front with tropical moisture connection moved over the northern half of the Southeast Alaska on August 17th. The combination of very wet antecedent conditions, rainfall from the weather front and high freezing levels, to increase snow and ice melt, produce significant runoff into the Taiya River basin. This caused the Taiya River to rise from bankful stage on the morning of the 17th to moderate flood stage of seventeen feet by the early evening. This produced significant flooding along the Chilkoot Trail in the Klondike Gold Rush National Park.

What forecasters said that day

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 Aug 17, 2:20 PM AKST, 40 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 17, 2:20 PM AKST, 40 minutes before

SOUTHEAST ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK
320 PM AKDT SUN AUG 17 2014

.SHORT TERM...A SLOW MOVING VERY MOIST FRONTAL BAND IS CONTINUING
ITS TREK EAST ACROSS THE PANHANDLE. FRONT WENT THROUGH YAKUTAT
AROUND 10 AM AND SITKA AROUND NOON. EXPECT WITH THE EASTWARD
PROGRESSION THAT IT WILL MOVE THROUGH THE JUNEAU AREA 4 TO 6 PM.
PROGRESS THROUGH THE WRANGELL/PETERSBURG AREA 7 TO 9 PM AND
KETCHIKAN AROUND MIDNIGHT. EXPECT THE RAIN TO TRANSITION TO
SHOWERS BEHIND THE FRONT. THE REMNANTS OF THE SURFACE LOW OVER THE
NORTHERN GULF WILL BE LIFTED INLAND WEST OF CAPE SUCKLING LATE
THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING BUT AT LEAST ONE SOLID BAND OF SHOWERS
IS MOVING ACROSS THE NORTHEAST GULF COAST TONIGHT. GUSTY WINDS
NEAR THE SHOWERS IN YAKUTAT THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS.

OVER THE INNER CHANNELS THE PRESSURE GRADIENT IS TIGHTENING
THROUGH TONIGHT SO LYNN CANAL HAS INCREASED TO A GALE AND AS A
RESULT THE GUSTY WINDS CAN BE FOUND IN HAINES AND SKAGWAY TONIGHT.
ALSO NORTHERN CLARENCE STRAIT HAS INCREASED TO GALE FORCE.
ALTHOUGH ONCE THE FRONT MOVES THROUGH THE REGION THESE WINDS WILL
RELAX...CLARENCE SHOULD DROP BELOW SMALL CRAFT BUT LYNN CANAL WILL
PERSIST.

MONDAY STARTS TO SHOW A DRIER TREND BY LATE AFTERNOON WITH JUST
THE SHOWERS FROM ONSHORE FLOW WITH OUT A STRONG LOW MOVING INTO
THE AREA.

.LONG TERM...LARGE-SCALE UPPER-LEVEL ANTICYCLONE IS FORECAST TO BE
POSITIONED OVER THE NERN PAC THROUGH MUCH OF THE LONG TERM PERIOD.
THIS WILL CAUSE A SERIES OF LOW AMPLITUDE DISTURBANCES TO PROGRESS
ACROSS THE NRN GULF/SRN INTERIOR AK INTO SERN AK AND NWRN CANADA
THROUGH MIDWEEK. ASCENT/MOISTENING ASSOCIATED WITH THESE FEATURES
COMBINED WITH RELATIVELY STEEP LAPSE RATES WILL YIELD
ISOLATED/SCATTERED SHOWERS TUE-THU. HOWEVER...MAJORITY OF THE CWA
IS EXPECTED TO REMAIN DRY...WITH PERIODS OF SUNSHINE AND 850 MB
TEMPERATURES WARMING TO AROUND 10C SUPPORTING MODERATING HIGHS
THAT WILL PEAK IN THE MID 60S TO LOW 70S ON THU. THE RIDGE IS THEN
FORECAST TO AMPLIFY NWD INTO THE GULF ON FRI AS A TROUGH DEEPENS
OVER THE BERING SEA/WRN ALEUTIANS. PLUME OF MOISTURE WILL BEGIN
SPREADING NEWD TOWARD SE AK AS THIS TAKES PLACE. MODEL GUIDANCE
SHOWS INCREASING SPREAD WITH REGARD TO THE TIMING OF PRECIP MOVING
ACROSS THE REGION FRI AND SAT...WHICH IS PARTIALLY A FUNCTION OF A
SMALLER SCALE WAVE ROUNDING THE RIDGE IN THE ECMWF SOLUTION...BUT
NOT PRESENT IN THE GFS. GUIDANCE IS IN BETTER AGREEMENT ON SUN
SHOWING A FRONTAL PASSAGE AND ASSOCIATED RAINFALL OCCURRING OVER
THE PANHANDLE.

COMBINATION OF CLEARING SKIES/ENHANCED RADIATIONAL COOLING AND
RECENT RAINFALL IS FORECAST TO PROMOTE FOG DEVELOPMENT OVER THE
CNTRL/SRN PANHANDLE MON NIGHT. ONLY MARINE HAZARD WILL BE SMALL
CRAFT SLY WINDS OVER NRN LYNN CANAL MON NIGHT. PRESSURE GRADIENT
THEN STRENGTHENS DIURNALLY OVER NRN LYNN TUE AFTERNOON BUT SPEEDS
ARE FORECAST TO BE JUST SHY OF SMALL CRAFT. ELSEWHERE...WINDS WILL
BE AOB 15 KT DURING MOST OF THE WEEK...AND WAVE HEIGHTS/SW SWELL
WILL DIMINISH OVER THE OUTER WATERS AFTER TUE. PRESSURE GRIDS WERE
GENERALLY IN GOOD SHAPE...BUT REFRESHED THE FORECAST WITH THE ECMWF
18Z WED THROUGH 00Z FRI...AND THEN USED LATEST WPC THEREAFTER. LOW
POP FORECAST WAS MAINTAINED THROUGH MIDWEEK...AND THEN CONTINUED
WITH A WETTER SCENARIO FOR THE WEEKEND. FORECAST CONFIDENCE IS
AROUND AVERAGE.

&&

.HYDROLOGY...RAIN THE LAST 12 HOURS OR SO HAS BEEN 1 TO 2.5
INCHES FROM SITKA TO YAKUTAT...A LITTLE LESS OVER THE INNER
CHANNEL REGION. TAIL END OF THE HEAVY RAINS MOVING ACROSS THE
CENTRAL PANHANDLE REGION. RAINFALL AMOUNTS WHILE HEAVY IN
LOCATIONS DID NOT SEEM TO BE SUFFICIENT TO CAUSE FLOODING FOR THE
AREAS THAT WAS EXPECTED. THERE WAS SOME MINOR NUISANCE TYPE
FLOODING NEAR YAKUTAT WITH SOME ROADS COVERED IN SPOTS. OTHERWISE
STREAMS ARE RISING RAPIDLY TO NEAR BANKFULL OR JUST STARTING TO
SPILL OUT FROM SITKA TO JUNEAU TO SKAGWAY. AS A RESULT PART OR ALL
OF THE FLOOD ADVISORY FOR JUNEAU AND SKAGWAY WILL BE CANCELLED
LATE THIS AFTERNOON.

&&

.AJK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
PUBLIC...AREAL FLOOD ADVISORY UNTIL 6 PM AKDT MONDAY FOR AKZ018-025.
         STRONG WIND FROM 10 PM AKDT THIS EVENING THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
     FOR AKZ018.
MARINE...GALE WARNING FOR PKZ012-036.
         SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR PKZ011-013-021-022-031>035.
         SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY DUE TO SEAS FOR PKZ041>043-051>053.

&&

BEZENEK/GARNER

VISIT US AT HTTP://WWW.WEATHER.GOV/JUNEAU

In the hours before

Local storm report, Aug 17, 2:57 PM AKST, 3 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK
357 PM AKDT SUN AUG 17 2014

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0300 PM     FLOOD            11 NW JUNEAU            58.41N 134.63W
08/17/2014                                      AK   NWS EMPLOYEE

            4 TO 6 INCHES OF WATER FLOWING OVER THE LOW WATER
            CROSSING ON MONTANA CREEK ROAD.

&&

NAF

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Taiya Inlet

When: August 17, 3:00 PM AKST to August 18, 9:00 AM AKST
Where: Taiya Inlet County, 17.13 mi N of Skagway to 16.83 mi N of Skagway
Cause: Heavy Rain / Snow Melt
Reported by: River/Stream Gage
Coordinates: 59.696, -135.245

The northern inner channels have been very wet so far this summer and any time moderate rain moved over the area the Taiya River waters levels went over their banks, this event was no different. Record rain fell over the area the on August 15th with about a one half of an inch near Skagway. This produced a minor flooding event on the Taiya River but it receded back to bankful by Saturday August 16th. Moderate rain from the warm front with tropical connections moved over the area Sunday morning August 17th and persist through the day before tapering off in the evening and overnight. With the ground already very saturated the rain went right into runoff and into the Taiya River. This increased the water levels to go over minor flood stage by the afternoon and then crested over moderate flood stage in the evening at seventeen point zero eight feet. The water level slowly went down through the rest of the night and was below minor flood stage by Monday morning. Above moderate flood stage of seventeen feet there is significant flooding along the Chillkoot Trail within the The Klondike Gold Rush National Park with flood waters at least thigh deep in places along the trail. The Park Service may close the trail above moderate flood stage due to safety concerns from the high and swift water.

What these are

Flood: Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Alaska in 2014 Every state in 2014 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, August 2014

Sources

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: 541760.