Flood — Lower Kuskokwim Valley, Alaska

2023-05-19 to 2023-05-22 · near Aniak, Lower Kuskokwim Valley, Alaska

Event narrative

A large ice jam moved down the Kuskokwim River the evening of Friday 5/19, with water flooding the village the night of 5/19 into the morning of 5/20. The river significantly spread across the village causing widespread flooding of home, roads and structures in the village lasting through 5/22 as flood waters started to recede. By 5/21, Riverwatch reported that in Kwethluk, flood water got into one house, covered numerous roads and damaged a few vehicles.

Wider weather episode

Unusually cold weather kept ice coverage in place on rivers across Alaska in spring 2023 with breakup much later than normal. Ice started breaking up on the upper reached of the Kuskokwim River starting on May 4th when ice started showing movement at Nikolai. Ice continued to melt, move and jam into late May. A Flood Watch was issued for Red Devil on May 13 and additional flood watches would continue to be issued as ice jam flooding continued to threaten communities downstream until the ice jam threat passed on the Kuskokwim River, which was May 22, 2023. The is a continuation of the previous Kuskokwim episode in which the ice jam flooding extended past 5 days on the Kuskokwim River. A large ice jam would move through the lower portions of the Kuskokwim River from Kwethluck through Akiak and into Bethel along Browns Slough from May 19-22, 2023.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (60.8004, -161.4430)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1104174. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.