Juneau can’t stop the floods, but it’s learning to see them coming

Since 2011, seasonal flooding from a basin beside the Mendenhall Glacier has hit Juneau neighborhoods, with record highs in 2023, 2024, and 2025 and another flood last month. Residents like John Lowrey and Mark Miller have suffered six-figure damage as water surged into homes with little warning.

In response, scientists at the University of Alaska Southeast and the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center built an online dashboard, launched in 2025, that translates glacier and hydrology data into forecasts residents can use to prepare. More than 15,000 people accessed it last year for real-time flood updates.

The city has also built roughly 6 miles of barriers, and some residents have raised homes or dug moats, but officials expect the annual floods to continue for decades as Alaska warms two to three times the global average.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.