Flash Flood — Anchorage Muni To Bird Creek, Alaska

2023-08-16 · near Anchorage, Anchorage Muni To Bird Creek, Alaska

Event narrative

Heavy rain led to flooded creeks and streams across Anchorage, reaching up to moderate flood levels; overflows impacted nearby properties in Anchorage. Up to 2 inches of rain fell within 6 hours (with 1.27 inches reported in 1 hour by a trained spotter) on already saturated soils and already elevated streamflows August 16. This caused aerial flooding along roadways and streams in a short span of time across widespread areas of downtown Anchorage, as well as along Chester Creek.

At 3AM, deep water at 20th and Bragaw caused cars to get stranded; 3 ft of water at 12th and Cordova led to water infiltration of ground level apartments.

Wider weather episode

A series of repeated heavy rain events in Anchorage caused flooding in various areas of the city. Each event caused additional severity of impacts as the ground and streams did not have sufficient time to dry out before the next heavy rain event.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (61.2123, -149.7647)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1127094. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.