Flood — Taiya Inlet, Alaska

2016-08-14 to 2016-08-15 · near Skagway, Taiya Inlet, Alaska

Event narrative

After a stretch of warm dry weather the Taiya River slowly rose in a diurnal trend from the snow and ice melt in the headwaters of the basin from the 11th through the 12th. A strong and moist weather front moved over the northern inner channels of Southeast Alaska from August 13th through the 15th. Rain amounts ranged from three quarters of an inch near sea level with amounts as high as one and three quarters of an inch at higher elevations. This weather system was warm in nature and created high freezing levels to continue the increased runoff from snow or ice melt. The added rainfall along with the snow and ice melt produced a one in a half rise on the Taiya River water levels. The river was already at high flows and went over moderate flood stage of seventeen feet in the afternoon of August 14th. The Taiya River crested in the late evening at seventeen point sixty-two feet. The rain diminished through the night and by the late morning of August 15th the water levels were below flood stage. The National Park Service reported that there was significant flooding along the Chilkoot trail with waist deep water at the lower portions of the trail and closed the trail for a period of time due to safety concerns.

Wider weather episode

An occluded weather front lifted over the northern inner channels of Southeast Alaska from the west from August 13th through the early morning hours of the 15th. This front was associated with a deep upper low pressure system over the northern Gulf of Alaska. Accompanied with the upper low was strong onshore flow from the southwest at with the winds backing around to the southeast at 850mb which is the favorable for heavy precipitation. Over the 2 day period one to one a three quarters of rain fell over the Taiya River basin. It was already a wet week for the area with the soils saturated along with high freezing level to increase the ice melt from area glaciers and any snow left in the mountains. The Taiya River slowly stair stepped up in stage starting on the August 11th. The river crested at seventeen point sixty-two feet in the early morning hours of August 15th which is above moderate flood stage of seventeen feet. At this stage moderate flooding along the Chilkoot trail, part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park near Dyea, is observed.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (59.4990, -135.3406)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 658609. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.