Flood — Taiya Inlet, Alaska

2014-07-13 to 2014-07-14 · near Skagway, Taiya Inlet, Alaska

Event narrative

The northern inner channels has been very wet into the early summer. That portion of the HSA is usually one of the driest locations in Southeast Alaska. The wet soils from the moist antecedent conditions has made the Taiya River basin very susceptible to flooding along the Chillkoot trail in the first half of July. The two day rain total from July 12 and 13 were one point twenty inches at the Skagway airport to one point eighty-one inches in the headwaters of the basin. There was also significant snow melt from warm temperatures at high elevation to increase the snow melt process and runoff into the basin and Taiya River.

Moderate rain first moved into the area on Saturday July 12 and it remain steady through most of the night but did taper off in the early morning hours of Sunday July 13. The runoff from the rain through the 12th caused the Taiya River to rise a three quarters of a foot in eighteen hours to be above minor flood stage of 16.5 feet by the evening of July 12. There was a lull in rainfall early Sunday morning but that did not cause the river to fall through early Sunday afternoon but remain steady just above minor flood stage. Another burst of steady moderate rain rates moved back into the basin in the late morning/early afternoon on Sunday and pushed the river above moderate flood stage of 17.0 feet. The moderate rain in the headwaters decreased and the Taiya River crested at 17.38 feet Sunday evening and slowly fell below moderate flood stage by 4 am on Monday July 14. Steady light rain lingered over the basin and the Taiya River remained above minor flood stage through Monday before the stationary front finally moves east of the area and the all of the precipitation ended.

Above 17.0 feet there is significant flooding along the Chillkoot trail within the The Klondike Gold Rush National Park with flood waters at least thigh deep in places along the trail. The Park Service may close the trail above moderate flood stage due to safety concerns from the high and swift water.

Wider weather episode

A weather front stalled over the area and produced steady moderate rainfall from July 12- 13. The front produced rainfall amounts from one to two inches. The previous month was well above normal for precipitation with 160% of normal at the Skagway airport. Temperatures were on the warm side with freezing levels well above the mountain tops of five thousand five hundred feet. The warm temperatures aided in the snow melt runoff into the the Taiya River basin.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (59.5887, -135.3708)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 538086. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.