A North Pacific low tracked across the Alaska Peninsula into Bristol Bay on the evening of January 11, the low center passing near King Salmon during the early morning hours of January 12. Strong gap winds out of the Western Alaska/Aleutian Range brought high winds to areas around Lake Iliamna on the morning of January 12.
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 AFC wrote it up.
A North Pacific low tracked across the Alaska Peninsula into Bristol Bay on the evening of January 11, the low center passing near King Salmon during the early morning hours of January 12. Strong gap winds out of the Western Alaska/Aleutian Range brought high winds to areas around Lake Iliamna on the morning of January 12.
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 Anchorage, AK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 11, 4:35 PM AKST, 7 hours 25 minutes earlier.
Southcentral and Southwest Alaska Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Anchorage AK 435 PM AKST Thu Jan 11 2024 .SHORT TERM FORECAST SOUTHCENTRAL ALASKA (Days 1 through 3)... The blocking pattern remains in place today as a large arctic airmass over Canada begins to surge south into the lower 48. An amplified ridge has moved over Alaska, extending down through the Gulf and into the far eastern Pacific. With the blocking pattern in place, a series of lows will be forced to ride up the western side of the ridge...gradually damping out the ridge before it finally translates eastward this weekend. Middleton Island Radar imagery shows showery activity has blossomed across the northern Gulf of Alaska today in response rather strong cold air advection overhead, yielding low-level lapse rates in excess of 7.5 C/km. Light precipitation has made it inland as far as Turnagain Pass and Girdwood. Snow totals through tonight will be on the light side with a couple inches of snow possible in the higher elevations. Further south, the system lifting north across the AK Peninsula continues to bring strong wind and rainfall to Kodiak Island. The front associated with the system will continue to lift north through the Kenai Peninsula tonight. Between the warm advection with the front and cold air from the east, a strengthening baroclinic/frontal zone will yield an increase in wind speed over the Gulf through tonight. Storm-force (48kt) will continue near Kodiak Island and through the Barren Islands tonight before subsiding tomorrow. This first system will quickly weaken as the surface low moves towards the southern AKPen, but another system right on its heels will allow for another wave of precipitation for Kodiak and the eastern Kenai for Saturday. Easterly flow should keep the western side of the Kenai, the Anchorage Bowl, and north into the Mat-Su Valley generally dry through downsloping until the system pivots and flow becomes more southerly later this weekend. With cold air entrenched in the Copper Basin and approaching low to the south, the resultant gradient will allow for gap flow winds in all the usual spots through tomorrow. -Brown/PP && .SHORT TERM FORECAST SOUTHWEST ALASKA/BERING SEA/ALEUTIANS (Days 1 through 3: Tonight through Sunday)... It has been an active weather week across the Bering and Southwest Alaska. Currently, an occluded low north of the Pribilof Islands this evening is finally moving out of the region. Across Southwest, southerly flow ahead of a near-stationary front will continue to promote a warming trend through Saturday morning. A North Pacific low tracking along the AKPEN is transitioning to an open wave. This wave will move across Southwest Alaska on Friday as a trough. Light scattered showers will be possible with the trough's passage, though the bulk of precipitation will likely be confined over the mountains. Easterly winds remain elevated across the Greater Bristol Bay area, specifically out of the Kamishak Gap into Koliganek and New Stuyahok. Gusts approaching 70 mph will remain possible through Koliganek. Winds across New Stuyahok have diminished to around 60 mph. Overall winds will weaken more substantially early Friday morning as the pressure gradient finally relaxes across the region. An active pattern will also continue the next few days across the Aleutian Chain. A second occluded low is pushing across the Western Aleutians this evening. Its front is approaching the Eastern Aleutians, which will also bring renewed shower activity for Friday. More notably, a North Pacific low is forecast to lift northward across the Eastern Aleutians late Friday into Saturday. Cold air already in place across the Bering, a result of northerly flow behind the low currently moving through the Aleutians, will be drawn further southward and wrap into the North Pacific low. This, along with strong height rises behind the low, is expected to promote intense northerly winds on the backside of the low. Northerly winds will increase from west to east, with Nikolski to feel the initial brunt of winds. Elevated winds should then expand eastward through Saturday morning, with winds finally tapering of from west to east across Akutan. A high wind watch for winds gusting up to 75 mph is in effect from 10pm Friday through noon Saturday AKST. Saturday into Sunday will see a broad wind field spread across the Bering and into Southwest Alaska, as the North Pacific low occludes. Cooler temperatures will move into Southwest Alaska on Sunday, bringing the unseasonable warming trend to an end. -BL && .LONG TERM FORECAST (Days 4 through 7: Monday through Thursday)... An upper level ridge extends across the Bering through the forecast period. A series of weak lows stream across from the Russian Chukchi Coast and Arctic to develop a deepening trough along the Alaska-Canada Border. A surface front riding over the Bering portion of the ridge brings gusty winds with areas of gale force gusts from the Western Aleutians into Western Alaska, diminishing early Tuesday. Gusty Easterly winds remain South of the Aleutians through Thursday. Moderate outflow winds develop across Southcentral Alaska after midweek. Kutz && .AVIATION... PANC...VFR conditions and light northerly winds will persist. High clouds should prevent fog and/or stratus development tomorrow, but it remains a low end possibility. &&
1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
The Iliamna ASOS recorded several wind gusts in excess of 65 knots (75 mph) between 2 and 4 am on January 12. The highest wind gust measuring 69 knots (79 mph) was occurred at 3:31 am. Several nearby RAWS and USARRY weather stations also recorded wind gusts at elevation (above 1,000 ft) in excess of 65 knots (75 mph).
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alaska in 2024Every state in 2024This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, January 2024
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: 1158241.