Yet more monsoon moisture, this time aided by an approaching upper level low and jet streak, brought a mainly nocturnal outbreak of 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.
Yet more monsoon moisture, this time aided by an approaching upper level low and jet streak, brought a mainly nocturnal outbreak of 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 26, 1:40 PM PST, 6 hours 18 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 240 PM PDT FRI AUG 26 2016 .SYNOPSIS...Showers and thunderstorms are possible over much of the area through Saturday...especially over Mohave County and the mountains of Clark County. Drier air will start to move in Sunday with lower thunderstorm chances mainly limited to Mohave County and the mountains of Clark and Lincoln Counties. Temperatures will be below normal through the weekend with high pressure then leading to above normal temperatures Monday and Tuesday. && .SHORT TERM...Through Sunday night. Isolated to scattered convection has developed generally as expected this afternoon and so far storms have not been particularly strong and storm motion has been sufficiently fast to limit precipitation amounts. Still expecting showers and thunderstorms to probably continue through much of the night as the models bring the upper trough/low to southern Nevada with a jet streak rounding the base of the trough providing large scale lift. It also looks like moisture, at least in the lower parts of the atmosphere will increase from the south. The upper trough will still be over the area Saturday and should help keep shower and thunderstorm activity going over much of the area. With the low overhead and potentially abundant cloud cover, temperatures should be 5-10 degrees below normal. The trough will move into central Arizona Sunday with a ridge beginning to nose up through California into Nevada. This should limit thunderstorm chances to mainly Mohave County but some models keeps a bit of moisture and weak instability over portions of southern Nevada so I kept a slight chance of the thunderstorms over the mountains of Clark and Lincoln Counties. Drying will continue to overspread the forecast area Sunday night. .LONG TERM...Monday through Friday. Upper level low approaching central California Monday will help suppress a strong ridge and bring an increasing southwest flow into the region Monday and early Tuesday. This increasing southwest flow will bring better mixing to the region along with increasing heights leading to about a 4-6 degrees jump in temperatures Monday afternoon. Moisture is expected to remain well east of the forecast area and no precipitation is expected. By Tuesday, an inverted trough over the western Gulf of Mexico will slowly track west and bring an increase in moisture to portions of Arizona with PW values approaching an inch and a half over the southern half of the state. Still looks to dry for northwest Arizona and the models are not indicating much in the way of instability to include any pops in the forecast. Moisture and instability will increase Wednesday over northwest Arizona as the inverted through continues to track west. The GFS indicates the 1" PW line basically extending from eastern San Bernardino Co through far eastern Clark and through northern Mohave Co with the 1.25" line over far eastern Mohave. Instability is also expected to increase leading to a better chance of thunderstorms during the afternoon. As of now it looks like the best chance will remain over the eastern half of Mohave County and did raise pops slightly for that area. Differences in the GFS/ECMWF on Thursday as the GFS shows the trough off the west coast to deepen which increases the southwest flow over the area and pushes much of the moisture east. However, the ECMWF increases high pressure over the southern states which allows moisture to be pulled north into Arizona keeping the chance of showers and thunderstorms going though Thursday and Friday. There is also some indication from the ECMWF that moisture could be pushed further west affecting Clark and eastern San Bernardino Counties. At this time will keep the slight chance over northern Mohave through Friday. Temperatures will remain above normal through Tuesday, but will cool about 3-5 degrees Wednesday and Thursday as the trough digs off the coast and brings lowering heights to the area. && && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Showers and thunderstorms are expected around the area through Saturday evening and could impact the terminal at any time during this time frame with gusty and erratic winds and bkn-ovc skies around 10k ft at times. Outside of influence from thunderstorms, winds should be southeasterly through this afternoon, favoring a south/southwest direction tonight followed by east to southeast again much of the day Saturday. For the rest of southern Nevada...northwest Arizona...and southeast California...Scattered to numerous thunderstorms can be expected east of a KTPH...KDRA...KEED line with more isolated activity further west through Saturday. Otherwise...southerly winds are favored for most areas between 8 and 15 knots with gusts to 20 knots. Outflow generated winds with gusts to 35 knots will be possible near areas of more concentrated thunderstorm activity. Drier air will start to spread in from the northwest Saturday night through Sunday. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Spotters activation may be needed today and Saturday. Spotters are encouraged to report significant weather according to standard operating procedures. && Short Term/Aviation...Harrison Long Term...Gorelow 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
709 PM PDT FRI AUG 26 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0701 PM FLASH FLOOD 17 N SEARCHLIGHT 35.71N 114.96W
08/26/2016 CLARK NV DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
US 95 CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING FROM MILE POST
36 TO 39.
&&
CFSThe Las Vegas radar (KESX), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 03:59 UTC.
4 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A vehicle was stuck in water and debris on Highway 127 at mile marker 15.
There was substantial damage at the airport, including at least two airplanes. A nearby residence also had property and tree damage.
Highway 95 and Five Mile Road were closed for major flash flooding and potential collapse of the road.
A vehicle was stuck in flood waters on Highway 62 near mile marker 126.
A semi truck was stuck in flood waters on Highway 95, requiring a swift water rescue. The highway was closed from I-40 to NV Highway 163 until 1025 PST.
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: 655107, 655108, 655109, 655110, 655111.