As ice retreats due to climate change, glacial lakes can form and grow. Rapid lake drainage can produce devastating outburst floods leading many to propose that hazards from glacial lakes are increasing. Outburst flood compilations do show an increase in number of events over time, however, recent studies attribute such trends to observational bias. This leaves large uncertainty about current and future glacial-lake hazards. Here, we focus on ice-dammed lake drainages in Alaska, as a third of documented events globally occurred in this region. Using multitemporal satellite imagery, we documented 1150 drainages from 106 lakes over 1985–2020, with an apparent increase in event frequency. However, accounting for increasing number of satellite images, we find no temporal trend in drainage frequency. Furthermore, we document a loss of >75% of ice-dammed lakes since the 1960s. This suggests a decrease in regional flood hazard and motivates an unbiased look at other regions.