A low moved NE out of the gulf with cold air in place, causing a deformation zone to set up with accumulating snow throughout much of the southern panhandle.
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 low moved NE out of the gulf with cold air in place, causing a deformation zone to set up with accumulating snow throughout much of the southern panhandle.
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 3, 5:41 AM AKST, 1 hour 19 minutes earlier.
Southeast Alaska Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Juneau AK
541 AM AKST Fri Jan 3 2020
.SHORT TERM...A weather feature will move northeast over Haida
Gwaii early Friday morning and than into British Columbia. It
will be this feature the provides most of the excitement on
Friday. Overrunning snow event starting around midday and
continuing into the overnight period. Ketchikan is right near the
edge of the event and think they will likely only get Advisory
level snowfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches, heavier snow amounts are
expected to fall over Misty Fjords region with about a foot in the
Hyder vicinity. The remainder of the panhandle will be dry or have
scattered snow showers.
The general upper low has a couple of centers of energy and one of
the will move into the eastern gulf area on Saturday. Model
consensus here is split between the US and Non US solutions. The
difference is strength of the low/front that move into the
southeast gulf and then lifts northward into the central
panhandle on Saturday, and the snow with this one should get as
far north as the Juneau area. For the time being we choose to use
the US pair solution. This will need to have an eye kept upon it
as there would a shift in the forecast across the panhandle if the
other solution pair were to turn out correct.
Locally breezy prompting strong wind headlines in the Juneau area
with a few hours of easterly outflow, and then the Lynn Canal
area and the Skagway region with north winds increase as the low
moving over Haida Gwaii tightens the pressure gradient there. Lynn
Canal will have Gale Warnings in the marine forecast.
.LONG TERM...Once again, long-term consensus has been a pipe
dream, and our best efforts have pushed us to fine-tune weather
events two days out. Models are honing in on yet another feature
riding northward along the baroclinic zone, west of Haida Gwaii
Friday night and west of Prince of Wales Saturday, and into the
south-central Panhandle Saturday night. Its track and orientation
will seem to infuse the southern Inner channels with some warmer
air, thus saving Ketchikan from a potential one-two punch, if
conditions worsen Friday afternoon from our current forecast.
Other areas to watch are Wrangell and Petersburg, possibly
Angoon on Saturday. Because of this system, winds from the north-
central Panhandle northward were turned north if they were south
before, and winds across the south were eased, especially as the
low moves ashore. Because of another low in the northern gulf
forming Saturday night/Sunday, we turned most winds over the gulf
to westerly into Sunday. But otherwise, pop/qpf/snow forecast
looked reasonable given such poor consistency of solutions through
the weekend. Beyond Sunday lie hints of yet another potentially
good storm rising northward, perhaps arriving with another
potential southern Panhandle snow event. Meanwhile there are some
signs of northern Panhandle snow late this weekend and Monday from
a northern gulf clipper. However, confidence is weak.
We used NAM, GFS, ECMWF for edits to the forecast.
&&
.AJK Watches/Warnings/Advisories...
PUBLIC...Strong Wind through this evening for AKZ025.
Strong Wind from 3 PM AKST this afternoon through this afternoon
for AKZ018.
Winter Weather Advisory from 9 AM this morning to 6 PM AKST this
evening for AKZ028.
Winter Storm Warning from noon today to midnight AKST tonight
for AKZ029.
MARINE...Gale Warning for PKZ012-013.
Small Craft Advisory for PKZ021-022-031>036-041>043-051.
&&
Bezenek/JWA
Visit us at http://www.weather.gov/Juneau2 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
The Ketchikan area received 5 to 10 inches of snow. COOP north of Ketchikan had rates of 8 inches in 9 hours. Thorne Bay EM estimated 6 inches of snow. Metlakatla Police estimated 8 to 10 inches of snow.
Hyder COOP measured 8.3 inches of snow at the 9 am report the following morning. Estimated that this fell in about 6 hours based on satellite, webcam and the Stewart B.C. observation.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, January 2020
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: 869316, 869321.