Sitka’s landslide warning dashboard is fully functional again, thanks to recent repairs to the system that feeds it data from the local airport.
The dashboard uses up-to-date rainfall data to determine the “current risk” for landslides in the community. That data comes from a rainfall gauge at Sitka’s airport, but a snag in the system has prevented that data from being broadcast to other sources on-and-off since August.
In an email to KCAW, Luka Silva with the Sitka Sound Science Center said the communications issue was repaired on Tuesday (11-4-25) and data is updating to the dashboard again.
The airport data feed was down one night in September, when rain triggered a small slide that damaged property on Cascade Creek Road. That day, rainfall levels were high enough to bump Sitka’s risk level to “medium” but the dashboard stayed at “low” risk.
While the outage affected the dashboard’s “current risk” levels, the dashboard’s forecasted risk continued to update. Silva says Sitkans should always refer to the National Weather Service office in Juneau for the most up-to-date information on forecasted weather, and that the dashboard is an additional resource that residents can use to make decisions around their safety.
