Flood in Taiya Inlet, Alaska

Steady moderate rain began to fall over the Taiya River basin on Sunday August 10 from a slow moving warm front. This front produced daily record precipitation records for the day at the Skagway airport with zero point sixty-two inches and at the Skagway power COOP station. The rainfall raised the river level on the Taiya River to bankful stage of 16.0 ft by Sunday evening and it remained there with steady light rain persisting over the area into Monday afternoon July 11. A band of heavy rain moved over the area late Monday afternoon and persisted into the early morning hours of Tuesday July 12. Rain amounts at Sheep Camp in the headwaters of the Taiya River were in the order three quarters of an inch in twelve hours and temperatures remained above 50 degrees to increase the snow and ice melt. The Taiya River began to rise steadily from the moderate rain and snow/ice melt early Tuesday morning before cresting at seventeen point ninety-one feet almost a foot above moderate flood stage of seventeen feet in the late morning. The river slowly receded through the day and evening to be below minor flood stage late Tuesday evening. Above moderate flood stage of seventeen 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.

A slow moving warm front moved over the Southeast Alaska from August 10-12 2014. This front produced constant rain for three days with an area average of one in a half to two inches. The warm front also kept temperatures well above freezing in the headwaters of the Taiya River near Skagway to enhance the snow-melt in the system. The combination of the snow melt and rainfall runoff produced moderate flooding conditions on August 12 along the Taiya River.