A cold front passing through the Mojave Desert brought a band of thunderstorms well ahead of it, and strong winds with dust storm conditions immediately ahead of it.
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The episode as NWS VEF wrote it up.
A cold front passing through the Mojave Desert brought a band of thunderstorms well ahead of it, and strong winds with dust storm conditions immediately ahead of it.
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 Sep 22, 8:59 AM PST, 2 hours 46 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 959 AM PDT THU SEP 22 2016 .SYNOPSIS...A strong trough moving through the region will bring widespread strong winds and enhanced fire danger to the region into tonight. Showers and thunderstorms with heavy rainfall will be possible across mainly northwest Arizona as well. Cool temperatures will persist through Friday before returning to near normal over the weekend. && .UPDATE... Band of convective showers slowly moved over Mohave County overnight...producing flash flooding in Colorado City and some additional county road closures near Wikieup. More showers are developing in Mohave County in association with an elongated vorticity maximum in advance of a deep/strong trough moving east into the Great Basin at this time. WV imagery is showing this trough continuing to deepen and will likely induce a slight negative tilt before the jet streak rounds the base of the trough later today. Strong difluent/divergent flow exists in much of the Interior West located in the favorable left front quadrant of the jet streak. Meanwhile, a tropical fetch of moisture continues to advect north in advance of the system, leading to (1) several rounds of convective showers in the warm sector of the system (mainly now confined to northwest Arizona) and (2) efficient, mostly warm-cloud precipitation processes, in which radar frequently underestimates rainfall rates (as it did this morning near Colorado City) and there is a notable lack of lightning. As stronger midlevel winds continue to advance eastward, cell motions with these showers have been fast, but the flow is oriented favorably for training, so the flash flood threat continues in northern Mohave County through the afternoon/evening. Latest high-resolution guidance suggests storms will rapidly develop in northern Mohave County this afternoon with slow system motion eastward given the nearly perpendicular SSW steering flow. Environmental conditions are favorable for isolated severe storms, with wind gusts the main threat. Hail may occur given the cold midlevel temperatures, but instability is quite limited...so updrafts will be weak. Strong synoptic-scale winds will be the primary threat from this system for a vast majority of the area. Seeing several sites in the southern Great Basin and Mojave Desert already reaching wind advisory criteria. Latest guidance suggests winds will exceed criteria through the afternoon in most of the area. Expanded current advisory into Death Valley and Lincoln County...given current obs and recent hi-res guidance. The Spring Mountains may flirt with high wind warning criteria this afternoon, but not confident enough at this time to upgrade their advisory. Red flag warning expanded to the Spring Mountains and Sheep Range with the morning package given projections of minimum relative humidities reaching criteria. It will take some drying to get this to verify, but upstream observations in Inyo County combined with expected downsloping this afternoon should take care of this. Busy day with additional updates likely. && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Southwest winds 15-25 kts with gusts to 40 kts will be likely through the afternoon and early evening. Forecast confidence has lowered with cold frontal passage this evening, with some high-resolution guidance suggesting winds will struggle to become northwesterly at all overnight. Speeds should decrease after sunset, but unclear to what degree. Expect somewhat frequent updates to the TAF through the day as the details become clearer. Mechanical turbulence is expected today in the lee of the Spring Mountains. For the rest of southern Nevada...northwest Arizona...and southeast California...Chances of showers/storms confined to Mohave and Lincoln Counties today with strong west to southwest winds the main concern elsewhere. Cold front will move through the Southern Great Basin and Inyo County this afternoon/evening with switchover to northwest directions during/after passage. Winds should diminish after sunset, but may be slower to occur in the Mojave Desert. VFR conditions outside of storms. Mechanical turbulence and mountain wave activity is anticipated through this evening. && .PREVIOUS DISCUSSION... 320 AM PDT THU SEP 22 2016 .SHORT TERM...Through Friday night. A strong area of low pressure currently over northern California will continue to move southeast through the day. This will lead to a rather active weather day across the southern and eastern areas of the CWA through the afternoon. Remnant moisture from tropical system Paine remains over the eastern third of the CWA and light to moderate showers have been occurring overnight across portions of Mohave County. This trend is expected to continue through the morning hours before additional forcing is expected to bring an uptick in shower and thunderstorm coverage. Deep moisture combined with increasing instability along with increased jet dynamics will lead to more widespread and possible severe thunderstorms over Mohave County this afternoon, especially as some drier air starts to work into the mid levels. Although PW values will decrease as the afternoon wears on the likelihood of training storms will lead to an increase flash flood threat for mainly northern Mohave County late morning and afternoon. The current flash flood watch looks good. Some storms are also possible for far eastern Lincoln County, but the bigger threat looks to remain over Mohave Co. No need to expand the flash flood watch at this time. The other main weather impact today will be increasing winds. Current RAWS shows some gusty winds over the eastern Sierra, but so far little else for areas to the east and south. However, winds are expected to increase significantly late this morning and continue into tonight before tapering off behind a cold front that will sweep across the area. Winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph will be likely over most areas with some potential gusts to 50 mph possible. The strongest winds are expected over western San Bernardino County where gusts to 60 mph are possible. Have gone ahead and upgraded the wind advisory to a high wind warning for zone 523 which includes Barstow and Fort Irwin. Although there may be some gusty north winds initially behind the front, strong persistent north winds are not expected to develop and at this time will not issue any advisories for the Colorado River Valley where north winds can sometimes be an issue. Precipitation will taper off across Mohave county late this afternoon as drier air sweeps across the forecast area. However, a few showers will still be possible overnight. Temperatures behind the weather system will be quite cool (around 10 degrees below seasonal average) Friday afternoon. Dry conditions areawide are also expected Friday. .LONG TERM...Saturday through Wednesday. Not much change in thinking for this period. Low pressure which affected the area through the short term will be to our east by Saturday morning, with northerly mid level flow over our area between the departing low and high pressure moving into the West Coast. The main concern for the weekend will be stiff north winds down the Colorado River Valley. MOS numbers have been increasing for the past couple of days, and Lake Wind Advisories may be needed for the weekend. Otherwise, quiet weather is likely, with a warming trend commencing on Saturday and continuing through the period. && .FIRE WEATHER...Still anticipating widespread red flag conditions today across much of the region with increasing southwest winds ahead of a cold front and gusty northwest winds behind the front. RH may be more marginal for the lower Colorado River south of Needles but still stands the chance to see patchy red flag conditions. Improving conditions with lighter winds expected Friday but remaining dry. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Spotters in Northwest Arizona are encouraged to report severe weather or flooding. Spotters elsewhere can report significant weather (especially blowing dust, wind damage, or fire starts) according to standard operating procedures. && Update/Aviation...Shafer Short Term/Fire Weather...Gorelow Long Term...Morgan 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), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:50 UTC.
1 high wind, 1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
The peak gust was measured near Henderson. A large tree blew down at the Clark County Building near downtown Las Vegas.
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, September 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: 655167, 655168.