Another push of monsoon moisture brought isolated severe weather and flash flooding.
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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.
Another push of monsoon moisture brought isolated severe weather and flash flooding.
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 18, 2:04 PM PST, 2 hours 19 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 304 PM PDT THU AUG 18 2016 .SYNOPSIS...Slight chances of storms will continue east of I-15 and in the higher terrain of southern Nevada and southeast California through Saturday before chances increase across the area as a weak system moves through the Desert Southwest early next week. Temperatures will cool gradually, becoming near to slightly below average early next week. && .SHORT TERM...through Saturday night. A modest push of moisture thanks to outflow from thunderstorm activity in Arizona last night...combined with the influence of a broad trough aloft and a small circulation moving across southern Nevada has resulted in a rather active afternoon of convection. Strongest activity has been confined mainly to areas along I-15 and points eastward. The largely unidirectional southwesterly flow aloft has also supported some training of thunderstorm cells resulting in an enhanced potential for localized flash flooding. With the loss of daytime heating later today suspect much of this activity will diminish but some isolated convection may linger through 11 PM or so thanks to the added upper level support brought by the trough moving through. Slightly drier conditions are expected Friday with the trough axis shifting southward and shearing apart. Best moisture and instability will likely be across northwest Arizona tomorrow, but some isolated activity will still be possible across southern Clark County and the Spring Mountains. Conditions will begin to moisten up again Saturday into Saturday night as a broad low drifts towards the southwest from Southern California. While the moisture is not overly impressive...the added dynamics of a broad low moving in will support increased PoPs and cloud cover late Saturday and into the extended range. .LONG TERM...Sunday through Thursday. Forecast thinking has not changed much since yesterday at this time as models are beginning to converge on the evolution of a weak midlevel perturbation moving through the Desert Southwest late this weekend through early next week. The perturbation will be leftover vorticity from the trough moving through the Interior West late this week, settling underneath an amplified but fairly progressive ridge in the eastern Pacific this weekend. Meanwhile, an upstream trough will impinge upon this ridge and kick the perturbation eastward into the Southwest Sunday through Tuesday, gradually becoming the southern extent of the trough axis swinging through the northern Rockies. As this perturbation moves through the area, relatively cool midlevel temperatures and at least weak large-scale ascent will foster an environment favorable for scattered convection across the area, especially Sunday and Monday. Given the overall weakness of the perturbation and associated lift, suspect that orographic lift and differential heating will be the key initiators of convection during this period, with outflow/storm-scale processes regenerating convection thereafter. Operational guidance appears to favor areas north of I-40 Sunday and Monday with chances becoming confined to Lincoln and Mohave Counties Tuesday and Wednesday as the perturbation begins its push east of the area. However, confidence remains a bit below average owing to the small-scale processes likely involved during this period (nearly always badly simulated this far in advance). Increasing confidence in a more considerable cooldown Sunday through Tuesday as MOS continues to suggest sub-triple digit temperatures for Vegas. Given expected cloud debris and lowering heights as the weak system moves through the area, temps in the mid to upper 90s for highs are certainly reasonable. Continued to trend highs lower for this period, and if MOS guidance has anything to say about, may not be quite low enough. Models begin to dry the region out as the weak midlevel perturbation moves out of the area by Wednesday. Temps should warm as shortwave ridging moves in, clearing the skies out. However, not expecting temps to climb to much above average readings Wednesday and Thursday. Again, somewhat low confidence here given an increased lack of model continuity (and a tendency for models to swing these systems through too quickly). && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Scattered thunderstorms will remain possible through early evening before becoming less likely towards sunset. Gusty winds will remain possible with gusts to 25 knots. Otherwise...scattered-broken cloud cover above 10kft with convective turbulence likely. Winds will be a challenge with thunderstorm activity around but should favor south or southwesterly directions. For the rest of southern Nevada...northwest Arizona...and southeast California...Isolated to scattered thunderstorms will remain possible through sunset mainly along and east of a KELY to KNXP line. Areas of convective turbulence likely east of this line along with gusty surface winds near thunderstorms in excess of 25 knots. Southwesterly winds of 15 to 20 knots likely this evening across the western Mojave Desert near KDAG. && .FIRE WEATHER...Isolated to scattered storms will continue during the afternoon and early evening hours through Saturday, especially east of I-15. Temperatures will cool to near seasonal values by this weekend. A weak system will move into the region late this weekend, increasing the chances for storms across the area Sunday and Monday. Critical fire weather conditions are not expected through the period. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Spotters are encouraged to report significant weather, including any flooding and/or wind reports, according to standard operating procedures. && Short Term/Aviation: Outler Long Term/Fire Weather: Shafer 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
501 PM PDT THU AUG 18 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0435 PM HAIL 3 WSW LAUGHLIN 35.15N 114.63W
08/18/2016 U0.75 INCH CLARK NV TRAINED SPOTTER
HAIL SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN DIMES REPORTED
JUST TO THE WEST OF LAUGHLIN. LOCATION
ESTIMATED.
&&
CMSPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS NV
503 PM PDT THU AUG 18 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0155 PM HAIL 2 SSE HENDERSON 36.02N 114.97W
08/18/2016 E0.75 INCH CLARK NV PUBLIC
REPORTED IN THE BLACK MOUNTAIN AREA OF
HENDERSON. RELAYED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.
&&
CMSPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS NV
505 PM PDT THU AUG 18 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0230 PM HAIL 3 WNW ENTERPRISE 36.04N 115.29W
08/18/2016 E0.88 INCH CLARK NV PUBLIC
NICKEL SIZED HAIL IN THE RHODES RANCH AREA.
REPORT RELAYED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.
&&
CMSThe Las Vegas radar (KESX), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:23 UTC.
3 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Eight inches of water flowed over Highway 95 at mile marker 35.
A vehicle was stuck in flood waters on Highway 95 at mile marker 51. Nearly three feet of road eventually washed away.
Highway 95 was impassable from Vidal Junction to mile marker 24 due to flooding and debris.
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: 649672, 649674, 649678.