National Weather Service details Suicide Basin monitoring and alert system
June 21, 2026 | Juneau, Juneau City and Borough, Alaska
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An agency official from the National Weather Service described the agency's monitoring tools and public alerts for Suicide Basin glacial‑lake outburst flood risk and invited residents to a weather‑service open house on June 27 from noon to 4 p.m.
The official said the Suicide Basin monitoring and current conditions webpage is live and can be found at www.weather.gov/juno/suicidebasin, and that information below the map will be updated once a week to show how much water has filled the basin and estimates of when it could reach full capacity. “The Suicide Basin monitoring and current conditions webpage is up and running. You can find it at www.weather.gov/juno/suicidebasin,” the agency official said.
The presenter showed a "forecast scenarios" tab that generates an example of what an outburst flood could look like if it began on the current day; the presenter cited an example scenario from 2025 to illustrate how a modeled event appears on the page. The agency official explained that when camera imagery shows overtopping or falling water levels indicating activity, the service will post a special weather statement banner on the monitoring page; if subglacial activity is confirmed as starting, a formal warning banner will be posted.
One operational improvement noted was the addition of an archive for camera images, which allows users to review basin conditions from previous years (the presenter cited examples reaching back to 2017 and 2020). The official also said the U.S. Geological Survey will enable additional monitoring equipment "over the next week or two," including a laser instrument and a camera focused on the overflow channel; the monitoring page will be updated as that equipment is activated.
The presentation closed with an invitation for members of the public to speak with the scientists who work on Suicide Basin during the National Weather Service open house on June 27 from noon until 4 p.m. The monitoring page and the planned USGS instrumentation are the next steps the agencies said they will use to refine public alerts and situational awareness.
The official said the Suicide Basin monitoring and current conditions webpage is live and can be found at www.weather.gov/juno/suicidebasin, and that information below the map will be updated once a week to show how much water has filled the basin and estimates of when it could reach full capacity. “The Suicide Basin monitoring and current conditions webpage is up and running. You can find it at www.weather.gov/juno/suicidebasin,” the agency official said.
The presenter showed a "forecast scenarios" tab that generates an example of what an outburst flood could look like if it began on the current day; the presenter cited an example scenario from 2025 to illustrate how a modeled event appears on the page. The agency official explained that when camera imagery shows overtopping or falling water levels indicating activity, the service will post a special weather statement banner on the monitoring page; if subglacial activity is confirmed as starting, a formal warning banner will be posted.
One operational improvement noted was the addition of an archive for camera images, which allows users to review basin conditions from previous years (the presenter cited examples reaching back to 2017 and 2020). The official also said the U.S. Geological Survey will enable additional monitoring equipment "over the next week or two," including a laser instrument and a camera focused on the overflow channel; the monitoring page will be updated as that equipment is activated.
The presentation closed with an invitation for members of the public to speak with the scientists who work on Suicide Basin during the National Weather Service open house on June 27 from noon until 4 p.m. The monitoring page and the planned USGS instrumentation are the next steps the agencies said they will use to refine public alerts and situational awareness.
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