The weather front swept over the central panhandle on 24 February, spreading snow over the cooler air trapped near the surface. An easterly flow pattern ahead of the front/low resulted in some upslope flow to the easterly slopes increasing the snowfall.
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.
The weather front swept over the central panhandle on 24 February, spreading snow over the cooler air trapped near the surface. An easterly flow pattern ahead of the front/low resulted in some upslope flow to the easterly slopes increasing the snowfall. Temperatures began warming to in the afternoon leading to a wetter snowfall in the afternoon and compaction of the snowpack.
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 Feb 23, 5:59 AM AKST, 7 hours 10 minutes earlier.
Southeast Alaska Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Juneau AK 559 AM AKST Fri Feb 23 2018 .SHORT TERM.../Friday morning through Saturday night/...As one low exits, our focus has shifted toward a second gale force low in the Gulf on Saturday. Showery precipitation has taken over across the central panhandle this morning. Yakutat received 7 inches of snow over the last 24 hours and Petersburg reported just over 5 inches as of early this morning. Many locations have already changed over to rain or a rain/snow mix as pockets of warm air advection have moved in behind the low, limiting snow accumulations to less than 1 inch at the Juneau Airport. Winter storm warnings for both zones were cancelled early as a result of the warmer than anticipated low level air and a lack of heavy snow. Changes to winds on the outside were confined to the Saturday and Saturday night time period with a strong nudge towards the 06z NAM. Net result was increased winds to high end gales over the Gulf. Cannot rule out storm force winds at this time. Temperatures agreed quite well in both MOS Guidance and model spectrum spreads. Maximum temperatures over the coastal waters were decreased for today and a slight decrease in temperatures for most locations for Saturday. Not many changes to minimum temperatures were made, as some clearing is expected tonight before the next system moves in. POP and QPF were adjusted using the NAM and 3 hour GFS, as agreement between these two models was relatively consistent once again. This quickened the onset of precipitation to mid-morning Saturday and ending late Saturday night for most of the panhandle. Preliminary snowfall totals for Saturday are ranging from 1-2", with the outer coast likely to see rain. This will shift us into more of a showery regime, with CAPE values approaching 400-500 J/kg. A possibility of lightning along the coast cannot be ruled out completely. Confidence remains about average. The general pattern has not changed significantly overall, but it is the small scale variations in these patterns that have limited the predictability of these systems. .LONG TERM...Sunday through Friday...We'll start off the long term on Sunday with a broad upper level trough positioned over the panhandle and western Canada and an upper level ridge building over the western gulf. A weakening surface low associated with a shortwave embedded within the upper level trough will continue to traverse southeast across the panhandle, taking with it lingering precipitation. This feature will also help to tighten the pressure gradient between it and a weak high pressure near the border with mainland Alaska and the Yukon. This setup may provide a brief northerly outflow event, so we increased winds accordingly through Lynn Canal. As the ridge of high pressure strengthens over the gulf and pushes east Sunday night into early Monday morning, this should help to fully clear out precipitation, albeit briefly, before our next system moves in Monday. Continuing with our progressive pattern trend, a shortwave with an associated developing surface low will dig into the western gulf Sunday night. A weather front with the low will lift across the eastern gulf and impact the panhandle Monday continuing into Tuesday. 700 mb model frontogenesis shows strengthening along the front, which should help trigger the lift we need for precipitation. Models also show significant moisture advection ahead of the front on Monday, so we could see some substantial precip amounts with this system. This may potentially be a tricky system regarding precip type; model 925 mb temps show a relatively cold air mass over the panhandle, so precip could start off as snow and briefly transition to a rain/snow mix or remain all snow. We mainly focused on forecast updates for the early period in the long term, which included the Sunday through Monday timeframe. We chose a NAM/GEM blend, using NAM more for winds and GEM for precip elements. After this timeframe, we allowed WPC guidance to remain and added in NBM for select elements, mainly temperatures, which were adjusted down for later next week. && .AJK Watches/Warnings/Advisories... MARINE...Gale Warning for PKZ012-041>043-051-052. Small Craft Advisory for PKZ013-032>036. Small Craft Advisory due to Seas for PKZ022-053. && SS/Fritsch/Voveris Visit us at http://www.weather.gov/Juneau
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK
1025 AM AKST FRI FEB 23 2018
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0600 AM SNOW PETERSBURG 56.81N 132.96W
02/23/2018 M1.8 INCH AK OTHER FEDERAL
STORM TOTAL AT PETERSBURG AIRPORT. CURRENTLY RAINING.
0600 AM SNOW 8 S PETERSBURG 56.70N 132.96W
02/23/2018 M5.1 INCH AK TRAINED SPOTTER
STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AT 9 MILE MITKOF HIGHWAY.
0600 AM SNOW EAGLECREST 58.27N 134.51W
02/23/2018 M6.0 INCH AK CO-OP OBSERVER
AT THE BASE OF EAGLECREST SKI AREA.
0700 AM SNOW 34 WNW HAINES 59.43N 136.33W
02/23/2018 M4.0 INCH AK CO-OP OBSERVER
24 HOUR SNOWFALL AT HAINES CUSTOM STATION.
0700 AM SNOW EAGLECREST 58.27N 134.51W
02/23/2018 M7.0 INCH AK CO-OP OBSERVER
MEASURED AT THE TOP OF EAGLECREST SKI AREA.
0800 AM HEAVY SNOW YAKUTAT 59.54N 139.73W
02/23/2018 M7.0 INCH AK OFFICIAL NWS OBS
STORM TOTAL AT YAKUTAT AIRPORT.
0815 AM SNOW HYDER 55.91N 130.02W
02/23/2018 M6.2 INCH AK CO-OP OBSERVER
24 HOUR SNOWFALL AT HYDER
0825 AM SNOW 8 N SKAGWAY 59.59N 135.33W
02/23/2018 M3.0 INCH AK DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
24 HOUR SNOW AMOUNT AT SKAGWAY CUSTOMS STATION.
0825 AM SNOW 14 N SKAGWAY 59.68N 135.33W
02/23/2018 M5.0 INCH AK DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
24 HOUR SNOW ACCUMULATION AT WHITE PASS.
0900 AM SNOW 1 S MENDENHALL GLACIER 58.40N 134.55W
02/23/2018 M2.1 INCH AK OFFICIAL NWS OBS
STORM TOTAL AS OF 9 AM FRIDAY AT THE JUNEAU FORECAST
OFFICE.
1015 AM SNOW 10 S WRANGELL 56.33N 132.40W
02/23/2018 E2.4 INCH AK TRAINED SPOTTER
ALL OF THE SNOWFALL HAPPENED BEFORE 10 PM LAST NIGHT.
RAIN AFTER THAT. AT 11 MILE ZIMOVIA HIGHWAY.
&&
EAL2 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
Petersburg trained spotter measured 10 inches of new snow at 1525 2/24. Impact was snow removal. No damage reported.
The east coast of Baranof Island observed 7 inches of new, heavy wet snow by the evening of 2/24. Impact was heavy wet snow removal.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2018Every state in 2018This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, February 2018
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: 738840, 738521.