Winter Storm — Eastern Chichagof Island, Alaska

2017-03-12 to 2017-03-13 · Eastern Chichagof Island, Alaska

Event narrative

Highly variable amounts of snow fell on 3/13 for Chichagof Island. Hoonah had a storm total of 12 inches by 0745 on 3/13 with 10 inches at the Police and Fire. Tneakee got 15 to 16 inches of new snow from this storm plus 3 to 4 more inches by 3/14.

Wider weather episode

On 3/12 the arctic front was over the central Panhandle as another in a series of storms moved northward from off the Pacific Northwest. By the afternoon of 3/12 the storm center had deepened to 981 MB off Dixon Entrance forcing warm moist air over the arctic air in place. The result was heavy snow for most of the Panhandle into 3/13 and lingering snow into 3/14. The impact was intense snow removal for storm totals up to 20 inches on top of an already deep snowpack. This was a setup for avalanches later that week.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 681037. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.