A monsoon moisture push which began on July 27th continued into August 5th, bringing considerable flash flooding and isolated severe weather.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 monsoon moisture push which began on July 27th continued into August 5th, bringing considerable flash flooding and isolated severe weather.
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 Aug 1, 4:16 PM PST, 1 hour 14 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 516 PM PDT Mon AUG 1 2016 .SYNOPSIS...Scattered thunderstorms will remain in the forecast the next couple of days and will carry the potential for very heavy rainfall, particularly across Northwest Arizona. Increasing monsoon moisture is expected Wednesday and Thursday which will result in widespread clouds and increasing thunderstorm activity. Drier conditions may try and push back for the weekend. Temperatures will vary depending on daily cloud cover but should hover near to slightly below normal through the week. && .NEAR TERM...515 PM...Through this evening. Three primary clusters of thunderstorms are currently ongoing at this time. One near Caliente in Lincoln County, one along Interstate40 near Essex in San Bernardino County, and a third along the Hualapai Range in Mohave County. Precipitable water values of 1.0-1.9 inches are in place (highest values to the south). This, along with storm motion to the south/southwest at 5 MPH brings a significant flash flood threat. Severe wind gusts and hail are also a threat, especially across Lincoln County where DCAPE is currently over 1500 J/kg and -10C to -30C CAPE values ranged from 400-800J/kg. Turning attention to the evening forecast. The first area of concern is southern San Bernardino county and State Route 62. The current cluster of storms is expected to continue to drift south, potentially expanding west to Twentynine Palms/Yucca Valley. The second concern is later this evening across Lincoln/Clark counties. The HRRR has been relatively consistent in showing a cluster/line of storms across SW Lincoln diving south, possibly through the Las Vegas Valley between 9pm and 12am. Storms are likely to accelerate somewhat as the S/SW steering flow increases to around 10 kts,decreasing the overall flood threat slightly. That said, flooding will still be possible with the strongest storms, but confidence in the flood threat is not high enough to expand the Flash Flood Watch at this time. This sort of setup can also bring strong outflow winds across the Las Vegas valley. -Wolcott- && .DISCUSSION...Tonight through Monday Mid level high pressure will be centered generally over central Nevada through Tuesday. Moisture trapped under the high will continue to bring isolated to scattered thunderstorms to mainly the eastern two thirds of the forecast area where the air mass is pretty unstable and precipitable water values of one to one and a half inch are in place. The hi-res models continue to show outflow pushing southeast into Lincoln, Clark and Mohave County late this afternoon through this evening which may help organize thunderstorm activity and enhance the threat of flash flooding. A Flash Flood Watch remains in effect through tonight for all of Lincoln and Mohave Counties and northeast Clark County. The area of high pressure will shift east somewhat Tuesday night and Tuesday which will allow a wave to move up from the south, bringing increasing amounts of moisture to the forecast area. Models have been kind of bouncing around with the track of this wave but it has mostly been looking like Mohave County will see the best moisture push but areas to the west should see some increase in moisture. This leads to higher thunderstorm chances in the forecast area wide for Wednesday through Thursday. An upper trough moving slowly across the Pacific Northwest will bring gradual drying from west to east across the forecast area. For Friday, Inyo, Nye and most of San Bernardino Counties should be dry with a only a slight chance of thunderstorms limited to Mohave County by Sunday. Temperatures look to remain a little below normal through the 7 day period but will of course be highly dependent on cloud cover which will likely be abundant Wednesday and Thursday. && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Isolated to scattered thunderstorms will remain possible for all corridors through this evening and possibly overnight and again Tuesday afternoon. At the time of this writing, the best chance of a storm at the terminal looked to be with a group of storms possibly moving in from the northeast at about 04z-05z. Winds will be mainly out of the northeast to east through this evening and could gust to around 30 knots due to storm related outflow mainly this evening. Storm activity is not expected in the overnight hours through Tuesday morning but could pick up again Tuesday afternoon. For the rest of southern Nevada...northwest Arizona...and southeast California...Isolated to scattered thunderstorms expected through this evening, mainly across Southern Nevada and Northwest arizona, with generally drier conditions across eastern California. Winds will be light and favor diurnal trends, although may be strong and gusty near thunderstorm activity. A couple of complexes of thunderstorms will develop across Northwest Arizona or Southwest Utah and push southwest overnight, and may impact Vegas airfields and Colorado River cities this evening into the late night hours. Isolated to scattered thunderstorms are expected again Tuesday afternoon over much of the area.&& .FIRE WEATHER...Thunderstorms across the area are mainly expected to produce wetting rains across southeast Nevada and northwest Arizona and eastern San Bernardino County through Tuesday. Minimal thunderstorm chances exist in western portions of the forecast area and these storms will tend to be drier. Moisture is expected to increase with most areas seeing a chance of thunderstorms Wednesday through Thursday. Most of these storms should be wet. Dry air will move in from the west Friday through Sunday. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Spotters are encouraged to report significant weather according to standard operating procedures. Spotter activation is recommended in Mohave, Clark, Lincoln, and San Bernardino counties due to flash flood potential. && Harrison For more forecast information...see us on our webpage: http://weather.gov/lasvegas or follow us on Facebook and Twitter
The Las Vegas radar (KESX), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:29 UTC.
10 flash flood, 1 lightning, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Water and debris were in the intersection of Goffs Road and National Trails Highway.
A vehicle was stranded due to flash flooding on Highway 62.
Flash flooding covered Kelso Cima Road.
Multiple roads within the Mojave National Preserve were covered with mud and debris.
Lightning set fire to a power pole at the intersection of Kelbaker Road and Kelso Cima Road.
Approximately 10 vehicles were stuck in flood waters at David Drive and River Drive. Sections of Needles Highway near Capri Road also washed away.
A vehicle was stuck in flood waters on Nipton Road at Interstate 15.
Thunderstorm winds snapped two flag poles which fell and damaged two anemometers.
Fast moving water flowed over Highway 62 in low water crossings from Steeg Road to Wonder Valley.
National Trails Highway and Goffs Road were closed due to flooding with large amounts of debris.
Two feet of standing water covered Essex Road. The road was eventually closed from National Trails Highway to Interstate 40.
Flooding closed Highway 62 from Highway 177 to Highway 95, and Highway 95 from Blythe to Needles.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in California, August 2016
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: 649593, 649594, 649595, 649596, 649597, 649598, 649604, 649614, 649621, 649632, 649638, 649646.