Flood — Juneau Borough, Alaska

2022-08-30 to 2022-08-31 · near Douglas, Juneau Borough, Alaska

Event narrative

Showers were moving across the Juneau area with most of them being light to moderate. A very strong shower moved over the Juneau airport around 1500AKST and persisted for the next 2 hours. This produced 1.03 of rainfall which is a 50 year return period rainfall intensity. Jordan Creek, located very close to the airport, was already near bankfull stage of 9.2 feet from the previous showers moving over the area through the day. The creek began to rise rapidly from the heavy rain and went over minor flood stage of 9.7 feet around 1700AKST and crest at 10.73 feet above moderate flood stage of 10.50 feet by 2100AKST. There was flooding of roads, yards along with some water getting into homes near Jordan Creek.

Wider weather episode

Bands of showers were rotating around a low in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. A very strong shower remained in place over the Juneau airport area including the drainage basin of Jordan Creek for 2 hours. The very heavy rainfall was a 50 year return period and produced significant amount of runoff to cause Jordan Creek to rapidly rise out of its banks to produce moderate flooding.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (58.3625, -134.5824)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1055581. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.