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 3, 1:41 AM PST, 10 hours 19 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 241 AM PDT WED AUG 3 2016 .SYNOPSIS...Monsoonal moisture will continue to stream into the area through Thursday. Thunderstorm chances will increase today and tomorrow across southern Nevada, northwest Nevada, and eastern San Bernardino County as a storm system approaches the area. Conditions will begin to dry out on Friday, and the area will likely be storm free by Sunday. Temperatures will be near to slightly below normal for the next seven days. && .SHORT TERM...Through Saturday. The KVEF 00Z sounding indicated a bit of drying in the atmospheric column (PW of 1.27 inches versus 1.41 inches 24 hours ago) as a midlevel anticyclonic circulation edged into southern Nevada today. As such, convection was noticeably quieter this evening in our area as weak upper-level vorticity maxima were shoved southward and eastward into far southeast California and central Arizona. Operational models suggest this anticyclonic circulation will begin to move northeastward today as a longwave trough approaches the Pacific Coast, allowing an elongated vorticity maximum to move back into southern portions of the CWA. More organized convection has been strongly tied to this vorticity maximum in past days, so suspect convective coverage will be higher across the area today. Most high-resolution guidance is in agreement with this notion, as several of the most recent runs of the HRRR (along with national operational convection-allowing models -- CAMs) simulate scattered convection developing across the high terrain of southeast Nevada, San Bernardino County, and Mohave County by early afternoon. Additionally, owing to enhanced mesoscale lift in southern Utah and north-central Arizona, CAMs have consistently developed a loosely organized convective cluster in these areas propagating SSW into northeast portions of the CWA this evening and tonight. Though confidence in this scenario is only moderate owing to recent verification of similarly-simulated convective clusters, think the improved moisture, the increasing proximity of a large-scale trough, and the influence of the midlevel vorticity in advance of the large- scale trough are enough meteorological factors to hoist a flash flood watch for Lincoln, most of Clark, far northeast San Bernardino, and Mohave Counties beginning late this morning. As the longwave trough approaches the region on Thursday, large- scale lift increases as moisture continues to surge northward into the southern Great Basin. As guidance has consistently emphasized Thursday afternoon and evening with the highest precipitation chances and given the upper-level support, the flash flood watch will go through Thursday night despite the likely scenario of at least a brief lull in convective coverage Thursday morning. Models have begun to diverge with the details of the trough passage on Friday. A perturbation within the longwave trough is set to move into central California on Saturday. However, the GFS/UKMET are considerably faster (12+ hours) than the ECMWF (which is also noticeably stronger with this perturbation). Notably, the GFS/UKMET are typically faster with these systems, but the ECMWF is more of an outlier compared to the remaining operational guidance, particularly given that this is a somewhat recent trend. If the ECMWF were to verify, monsoonal moisture would be slower to move out of the region than what is currently indicated in the grids. For now, maintained continuity with previous forecasts and kept PoPs confined to Lincoln and Mohave Counties on Friday and far northeast Mohave County on Saturday, but confidence is a bit lower in this forecast than at this time yesterday. Regarding temperatures, guidance varies considerably on Thursday and Friday owing to discrepancies in simulated cloud cover/convection as well as the emerging differences in the trough passage mentioned above. For now, kept temperature forecast fairly consistent with previous shifts, with near to slightly below normal temperatures through Saturday. Confidence is far below average, however, given the overall complexity of the forecast. One final note...as the longwave trough moves through the area late this week into this weekend, expect some breezier south/southwest winds to develop in much of the area on Friday and Saturday, especially in the southern Great Basin and Mohave County. .LONG TERM...Sunday through Tuesday. Picking up Sunday morning, troughing along the West Coast will bring dry southwest flow to our CWA, resulting in mostly sunny skies, seasonably hot temperatures, and lower humidity. This pattern holds through Tuesday. There is one feature of note on Monday as the ECMWF brings a tropical wave/cyclone near the tip of the Baja Peninsula, which would suggest a return of deeper moisture to our area on Wednesday. The GFS is more bearish with this wave and does not show any moisture surge. There is plenty of time to watch this, and it is worth noting that a similar pattern last Thursday brought the current episode of deeper moisture and thunderstorms. && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Chances are a little better today of storms, especially in the higher terrain and in the surrounding flight corridors. An outside chance of a storm affecting the terminal this afternoon, but too low to mention in the TAF. Winds should be primarily southerly to southeasterly 7-12 kts. Chances of storms continue tonight and tomorrow. Outflow from these storms, should it reach the terminal, would produce sudden gusty/erratic winds. For the rest of southern Nevada...northwest Arizona...and southeast California...Scattered storms are expected to develop in Lincoln, Clark, San Bernardino, and Mohave Counties today, especially in the higher terrain. Outflow from these storms may affect the terminals, with gusty/erratic winds should this occur. Outside of convection, mainly south/southeast winds 5-15 kts, perhaps a bit stronger at KBIH, KIFP, and KEED. Light/terrain-driven winds expected overnight with chances of storms continuing. && .FIRE WEATHER...Monsoonal moisture will continue to stream into the area through Thursday...with chances of storms increasing in southern Nevada, eastern San Bernardino County, and Mohave County. Very heavy rainfall, frequent lightning, and gusty winds are possible with these storms. Conditions will begin to dry out from west to east on Friday, with a return to seasonably hot and rain- free conditions by Sunday. Conditions may approach critical fire thresholds this weekend, especially in the southern Great Basin, where stronger winds are forecast. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Spotters are encouraged to report significant weather according to standard operating procedures. Spotter activation may be necessary in Lincoln, Clark, Mohave, and San Bernardino Counties today through tomorrow. && Short Term/Aviation/Fire Weather: Shafer Long Term: Morgan 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
1042 AM PDT WED AUG 3 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0200 AM FLASH FLOOD 1 ENE DOLAN SPRINGS 35.60N 114.25W
08/01/2016 MOHAVE AZ EMERGENCY MNGR
8 RESIDENCES FLOODED IN DOLAN SPRINGS.
&&
DSBThe Las Vegas radar (KESX), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 19:57 UTC.
4 flash flood, 2 flood, 1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Flood waters undermined the road and damaged a guard rail on Highway 158.
A road washed out near Oak Knoll.
Highway 93 was flooded just south of Railroad Pass Casino. Two cars were stuck in water up to the hoods.
The Flamingo Road on ramps to Highway 95 were closed due to flooding.
Water flowed over Tropicana Avenue near the Highway 95 interchange. The road was still passable.
Lightning set fire to a house.
Mud and gravel washed onto Sandy Valley Road. The road was still passable.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Nevada in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in Nevada, 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: 649653, 649654, 649655, 649658, 649659, 649661, 649663.