A Pacific trough swinging through the area brought locally high winds 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 Pacific trough swinging through the area brought locally high winds 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 Nov 16, 2:45 PM PST, 2 hours 8 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 245 PM PST Wed Nov 16 2016 .SYNOPSIS...Strong winds will continue through this evening as a potent cold front advances through the region. Cooler conditions expected the remainder of the week with temperatures falling near or below freezing for many areas outside of the lower desert and urban locations. Temperatures will gradually moderate over the weekend with another weather system possible in the region early next week. && .SHORT TERM...through Friday Night. Primary concern in the short term continues to be the winds. So far today, while widespread gusty winds have been observed, overall the peak gusts have not been overly impressive. In the past couple of hours there has been an increase in wind gusts over 40 mph particularly on the southern and western edge of the Las Vegas Valley...and along the eastern Sierra slopes/Owens Valley. Further upstream...Tonopah is now gusting to 45 mph behind the approaching cold front. Still anticipate winds continuing to increase through the evening with an impressive thermal gradient setting up. Surface pressure gradient between Vegas and Reno is currently ~12mb and increasing and gradients over ~14C are often associated with high winds. Despite this gradient...high resolution models aren't suggesting widespread high wind criteria so Ive gone ahead and maintained our advisory products as they are. Nonetheless...be advised strong winds will be possible this evening as the cold front makes its approach and immediately behind it when winds could gust between 50-55 mph. A few downed trees...power outages...and areas of blowing dust can be expected if this materializes. Calmer weather is in store for Thursday as the winds relax. Temperatures will be sharply cooler with afternoon highs some 10 to 15 degrees colder than Wednesday. As winds continue to lighten Thursday night...clear skies and the cool airmass will make for ideal radiational cooling conditions. This may bring about the first freeze for parts of the area near Pahrump and Kingman and a freeze watch remains in effect for those areas. Conditions both Thursday and Friday aside from being seasonably cool...will be mostly sunny and dry. .LONG TERM...Saturday through Tuesday. Strong ridge over the middle portions of the country will begin to shift east as a low pressure system off the Pacific Northwest coast begins to move inland. There are still some subtle differences in the models, but overall they are coming closer together and overall confidence is increasing. Initially the main upper low will move into northern Washington Saturday afternoon as a secondary low develops at the base of the trough off the central and southern California coast. For our area, Saturday and Sunday are expected to remain dry as a southwest flow develops ahead of the newly formed low. By Monday the low is forecast to move into southern California with precipitation spread east and northeast. With this system taking a track this far south most of the precipitation is expected to remain south of I-15 with Mohave Co and areas east seeing the highest chances. Did make a few changes and upped the pops a bit in Mohave Co, but generally left everything else alone. The northern portion of the trough will move into the Pacific Northwest through central California Monday afternoon so its possible some of our northern forecast area will see some showers. However moisture is more limited and chances are lower. Some residual showers remaining over the eastern CWA Monday night with high pressure already starting to build in by Tuesday. Like the previous shift mentioned temperatures are not really expected to change much with readings generally close to normal through the week. && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Increasing winds for the remainder of this afternoon as a cold front approaches the area. Southwest winds between 25-35 kts with gusts to 45 kts are likely just ahead of the front which is forecast to move through the area between 03z-04z. Winds behind the front are also expected to be gusty with gusts up to 45 mph. There is a possibility of gusts approaching 50 kts, but it is not expected to be widespread and continuous. Winds will gradually decrease late tonight with north winds around 10-20 kts through 15z then decreasing to around 10 kts after. Few-sct clouds around 8k feet along the front, but mainly sct-bkn250. Areas of blowing dust with vsby down to 4sm possible at times this afternoon and early evening. For the rest of southern Nevada...northwest Arizona...and southeast California...Cold front will move through the region this afternoon and evening with southwest to west winds 25-35 kts ahead of the front and northwest winds 20-30 kts behind. Just ahead and behind the front gusts up to 50 kts are possible, but its not expected to be widespread. Blowing dust reducing vsby to 2-3sm also possible through 06z. Northwest winds will gradually diminish overnight with most areas seeing winds 10-20 kts through Thursday. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Gusty winds will develop across the region today and Thursday. Spotters should report significant weather according to standard operating procedures. && Short Term...Outler Long Term/Aviation...Gorelow For more forecast information...see us on our webpage: http://weather.gov/lasvegas or follow us on Facebook and Twitter
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 high wind, 1 strong wind. Local standard time, as filed.
The peak gust was measured 2 miles NW of Centennial Hills.
The peak gust was measured 44 miles ENE of Beatty.
An overhead traffic sign blew down onto Paradise Road just north of the Airport Connector tunnel. Two trees also blew down in Henderson.
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, November 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: 662073, 662074, 662075.