A very cold storm system brought rare low elevation snow to the Mojave Desert.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS VEF wrote it up.
A very cold storm system brought rare low elevation snow to the Mojave Desert.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Las Vegas, NV wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 30, 3:30 PM PST, 1 hour 30 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS NV 330 PM PST TUE DEC 30 2014 .SYNOPSIS...A STRONG AREA OF LOW PRESSURE OVER SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TONIGHT WILL TRACK EAST TOWARD ARIZONA ON NEW YEAR'S EVE INTO NEW YEAR'S DAY. THIS WILL RESULT IN PRECIPITATION ACROSS MUCH OF THE MOJAVE DESERT WITH GREATEST SNOW ACCUMULATIONS IN MOHAVE COUNTY ARIZONA. SNOW LEVEL WILL BE AS LOW AS 2000 FEET. CONDITIONS SHOULD DRY OUT ACROSS THE ENTIRE AREA BY THURSDAY EVENING HOWEVER COLD WEATHER WILL LAST INTO THE WEEKEND. && .SHORT TERM...TONIGHT THROUGH NEW YEAR'S DAY HIGHLIGHT CHANGES WITH THIS PACKAGE. CANCELLED THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR NORTHWEST SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY. DELAYED THE START OF THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR CLARK COUNTY UNTIL 10 PM THIS EVENING. MOVED UP THE ENDING TIME OF THE WINTER STORM WARNING FOR MOHAVE COUNTY TO 5 PM MST THURSDAY. SINCE THIS MORNING, COLD FRONT HAS CONTINUE TO SHIFT SOUTH AND LIES ON A LINE FROM NEAR BARSTOW-NEEDLES-KINGMAN. EAST-WEST BAND OF CLOUDINESS BEHIND THE COLD FRONT HAS ONLY PRODUCED LIGHT SNOW IN THE SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA, SHEEP RANGE AND SPRING MTNS WITH REPORTS OF A HALF INCH OR LESS. EXCEPT THE SNOW WITHIN IN THIS BAND TO DISSIPATE OVERNIGHT AS FOCUS SHIFTS TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA/NORTHWEST ARIZONA AS DYNAMICS ASSOCIATED WITH UPPER LOW TAKE OVER. FORCING WITH UPPER LOW ALREADY VISIBLE WITH EXPANSION OF CLOUD SHIELD NORTHEASTWARD OVER BARSTOW AND THE MORONGO VALLEY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY. HAVE HAD A REPORT OF LIGHT RAIN IN MORONGO WITH FLURRIES REPORTED AT THE SLIGHTLY HIGHER ELEVATION OF YUCCA VALLEY. 12Z/18Z DATA HAS DELAYED THE ONSET OF SNOW MORE UNTIL AFTER 06Z THIS EVENING. OUR CONFIDENCE REMAINS HIGHEST IN MOHAVE COUNTY FOR IMPACTFUL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS. LOOKING AT AROUND 4 INCHES IN KINGMAN WITH 5-10 INCHES IN THE HUALAPAI MTNS AND HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF EASTERN AND NORTHERN MOHAVE COUNTY THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS MAY NOT MEET CRITERIA ACROSS CLARK AND EASTERN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTIES BUT DUE TO EXPECTED HIGH VOLUME OF TRAFFIC HEADED TOWARD LAS VEGAS KEPT ADVISORIES AS IS. OTHER PART OF THIS STORM IS THE COLD TEMPERATURES. DAYTIME HIGHS WEDNESDAY AND NEW YEARS DAY WILL BE WELL BELOW NORMAL. THOSE PLANNING TO CELEBRATE OUTDOORS SHOULD DRESS IN LAYERS. DECIDED AGAINST A HARD FREEZE WATCH FOR PARTS OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND BEYOND. LATER SHIFTS CAN EVALUATE. ON NEW YEARS DAY, SNOW SHOWERS AND ANY ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE DECREASING ACROSS MOHAVE COUNTY. DRY AND LESS CLOUD COVER FOR OUR WESTERN AREAS. .LONG TERM...THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY. OUR NEW YEAR'S SYSTEM IS STILL ON TRACK TO EXIT ARIZONA AND PUSH THROUGH NEW MEXICO ON FRIDAY. HIGH PRESSURE WILL AMPLIFY AND BUILD ACROSS OUR AREA...BRINGING DRY NORTHWEST FLOW ALOFT FRIDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND. WOULD ONLY EXPECT TO SEE SOME PASSING HIGH CLOUDS THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND AND INTO NEXT WEEK. AS FOR TEMPERATURES...WE ARE STILL ANTICIPATING SOME VERY COLD MORNINGS...WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR A HARD FREEZE IN THE LOWER DESERTS FRIDAY MORNING AND AGAIN SATURDAY MORNING. TEMPERATURES WILL THEN START TO MODERATE SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY...GETTING CLOSER TO NORMAL VALUES FOR THE NEW WORKWEEK. && .AVIATION...FOR MCCARRAN...SUSTAINED NORTH-NORTHEAST WIND 10-20 KTS WITH GUSTS 20-25 KTS THROUGH THE NIGHT. CEILINGS WILL RANGE BETWEEN 8-10K FT THIS EVENING, THEN LOWER TO BETWEEN 3-5K FT AFTER MIDNIGHT AND CONTINUING THROUGH THE DAY WEDNESDAY. A LIGHT ACCUMULATING SNOW OR FLURRIES CANNOT BE RULED OUT DEVELOPING EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING AND PERSISTING INTO THE EARLY AFTERNOON. THE VISIBILITY COULD BE RESTRICTED DOWN TO AS LOW AS 5 MILES. CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO IMPROVE WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND NEW YEARS DAY. FOR THE REST OF SOUTHERN NEVADA...NORTHWEST ARIZONA...AND SOUTHEAST CALIFORNIA...LOWER CEILINGS AND SNOW/RAIN WILL AFFECT TERMINALS IN MOHAVE COUNTY ARIZONA AND SOUTHEAST CALIFORNIA TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY UNDER A STRONG/COLD UPPER LOW. PERSIST NORTH-NORTHEAST WIND 10-20 KTS WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 KTS THROUGH WEDNESDAY BEFORE DECREASING WEDNESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY. CONDITIONS WILL CEILINGS WILL START TO IMPROVE WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY AS THE UPPER LOW SHIFTS EAST ACROSS ARIZONA. && .SPOTTER ACTIVATION...SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT ANY SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES. && SHORT TERM/AVIATION...PIERCE LONG TERM...PADDOCK FOR MORE FORECAST INFORMATION...SEE US ON OUR WEBPAGE: HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/LASVEGAS OR FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS NV
352 PM PST TUE DEC 30 2014
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0855 PM NON-TSTM WND GST BICYCLE LAKE AIRFIELD 35.28N 116.62W
12/29/2014 M51.00 MPH SAN BERNARDINO CA ASOS
BICYCLE LAKE AIRFIELD MEASURED A PEAK WIND GUST OF 51 MPH
FROM THE SOUTHWEST.
0142 AM NON-TSTM WND GST OAK CREEK RAWS 36.84N 118.26W
12/30/2014 M54.00 MPH INYO CA MESONET
OAK CREEK RAWS MEASURED A PEAK WIND GUST OF 54 MPH FROM
THE NORTH.
&&
STACHELSKIThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 winter weather, 1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Two inches of snow fell in Yucca Valley. Three vehicle crashes in the Morongo Basin resulted in five (indirect) injuries.
Very light snow fell as low as Kelso and Nipton, with two to three inches in the higher elevations of the Mojave National Preserve. At least three vehicle accidents were reported due to slick roads. Highway 95 was also closed from Interstate 40 to the Nevada state line for about three hours due to snow.
About half an inch of snow accumulated in Needles. Approximately one sixth of the customers in town lost power.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2014Every state in 2014This day in weather historyWarnings in California, December 2014
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 551754, 551755, 551756.