A stalled weather front brought significant snow to the southeast Interior.
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 AFG wrote it up.
A stalled weather front brought significant snow to the southeast Interior.
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 Fairbanks, AK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 8, 3:00 PM AKST, 8 hours earlier.
Northern Alaska Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Fairbanks AK 300 PM AKST Tue Mar 8 2022 .SYNOPSIS... The relative quiet weather of the last several days will end tomorrow with heavy snow forecast for much of the Interior south of Fairbanks as well as the Alaska Range. Gusty winds and light snow will bring low visibilities in blowing snow over highway summits North of Fairbanks. Strong winds will push east over the Northern Interior tomorrow to the Western Interior and West Coast late Wednesday and into Thursday. && .DISCUSSION... Models... The 08/12z model suite initialized well against the 12z surface analysis and 12z upper air observations as well as verifying well against the 18z surface analysis. Model spread between model families remains high even in the short range with the GFS again being an outlier solution. Preferred to remain consistent with well performing ECMWF and NAM which was used as the basis for previous forecast package as well as for this forecast package. Upper Levels and analysis.... Upper level ridging extends from the Interior south into the Gulf of Alaska while a weak shortwave over the northern portions of the Western Interior merges with a strong shortwave trough digging south and west over Northeast Alaska tonight and over north Central Alaska on Wednesday. As these two systems merge and strengthen over the Central Interior a deformation zone producing heavy snow will develop on Wednesday and continue into Thursday along a line from Eagle to North Pole to Nenana to Lake Minchumina. A 558 dam high pressure center near Wrangel Island will remain nearly stationary into the later part of the week while weak upper level low pressure remains over the Aleutians. Central and Eastern Interior... As mentioned above a strong deformation zone will develop on Wednesday along a Eagle to North Pole to Nenana to Lake Minchumina line. Heavy snow is expected to develop especially along and to the south of this line on Wednesday. Winter Storm Warnings have been issued for much of the Interior to the south and east of Fairbanks including the Central and Eastern Alaska Range. Winter Weather Advisories for snow and blowing snow over Highway Summits have been issued form most zones north and west of Fairbanks in the Central and Eastern Interior. Snow amounts will taper off quickly to the north of Fairbanks however gusty winds especially over highway summits north of Fairbanks will produce low visibilities in blowing snow. West Coast and Western Interior... Light snow and rain continue to spread north this afternoon with light snow reaching the Western Brooks Range by this evening. The rain and snow mix will diminish from south to north this evening over the West Coast and Western Interior. Storm total snow accumulations will remain in the 1 to 2 inch range. As heavy snow develops near the Alaska Range tomorrow there will be a slight chance of mixed precipitation in the Y-K Delta eastward to near McGrath tomorrow. Strong and gusty easterly to northeasterly winds will increase over the Western Brooks Range, the higher terrain of the Western Interior tomorrow as well as along the West Coast tomorrow evening and into Thursday. Continue to monitor for blowing snow and low visibility potential for these areas. North Slope and Brooks Range... Strong surface high pressure exists over the Arctic waters. Areas of fog, low stratus, and light snow and blowing snow reducing visibility to one half mile are times continues this afternoon especially for areas east of Utqiagvik. Winds will increase over the Western North Slope tomorrow as pressure gradient between the high over the Arctic waters and a trough of low pressure over the Interior increases. Monitor for potential low visibilities in blowing snow especially south of Point Lay tomorrow along the Northwest Coast. Coastal Hazard Potential Days 3 and 4...None. Extended Forecast Days 4 to 7... High pressure builds in from the northwest providing for cooler and drier weather over mush of northern Alaska by the weekend. && .AFG WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Winter Storm Warning for AKZ223-AKZ224-AKZ225-AKZ226. Winter Weather Advisory for AKZ218-AKZ219-AKZ220-AKZ221-AKZ222. Brisk Wind Advisory for PKZ200-PKZ210-PKZ220-PKZ225. && CCC MAR 22
2 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Snow began in Northway just before 11 PM on the 8th, and by 11 PM on the 9th 8 inches of snow had fallen. In Tok, 9.7 inches of snow was measured by the COOP observer.
A COOP observer east of Delta Junction reported 12 inches of snow with this event. The snow began on the evening of the 9th and tapered off the evening of the 10th. West of Delta Junction public reports ranged from 4 to 6 inches of accumulation with this event.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, March 2022
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: 1014601, 1014600.