A potent atmospheric river brought heavy rain and flooding to much of the Mojave Desert. Isolated high winds also occurred after the heavy rain ended.
Every event with a place to put it; 4 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 potent atmospheric river brought heavy rain and flooding to much of the Mojave Desert. Isolated high winds also occurred after the heavy rain ended.
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 Feb 14, 9:57 AM PST, 45 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 957 AM PST Thu Feb 14 2019 .SYNOPSIS...An atmospheric river event will bring moderate to heavy rain to much of the region today before ending late this afternoon and early this evening. Additional storm systems over the weekend will help rain and snow shower chances linger along with keeping the region cooler than normal and windy at times. && .UPDATE...Widespread precipitation started across Southeast California and Southern Nevada before sunrise this morning. Moderate rainfall will persist, with only brief breaks, until about 4-6 PM PST when it will largely end across most of the region as the back edge of the atmospheric river quickly pushes away over Arizona. Widespread amounts of 0.33-0.50" have already been observed across most of the Mojave Desert Zones so we should see large areas of around 1 inch or more of rainfall with locally higher amounts exceeding 2 inches near the mountains. Biggest potential flooding impacts will be San Bernardino/Mohave Counties where the Flash Flood Watch is in effect. Death Valley may also see impacts due to moderate to heavy rain. The rest of the region will see water flowing in washes and flood channels. A rain-snow mix around 8500-9000 feet MSL can be expected for the Spring Mountains due to the tropical origins of the moisture plume. Colder air will slide across the Southern Sierra and Central Nevada this afternoon and evening but will be on the tail end of the deeper moisture as it slides toward the east. Minor adjustments will be made to QPF amounts and weather to indicate a little faster end to precip this evening based on the latest observations and model trends. && .PREV DISCUSSION...318 AM PST .SHORT TERM...through Friday night. Leading edge of AR nosing into southern California this morning. Radar showing returns starting to quickly develop and spread eastward over the High Desert of San Bernardino County. Surface reports showing heavy rain inland as far east as Palm Springs. Satellite derived PW values running 1+" as far inland as western Arizona with 1.5" values along the southern California coast. Those values are well in excess of 200% of normal. The snow level radar in the San Bernardino County mountains showing snow levels running around 10 kft currently. Upper trough west of San Francisco will eject inland today in response to an even deeper/colder closed low moving south out of the Gulf of Alaska. The deep moisture will be riding along the southern edge of an impressive 180 kt jet today which will add not only more dynamics, but strong orographics along our southwest facing slopes. Made no change to our existing weather headlines. Model QPF output continues to indicate 1+" rainfall amounts likely from the Morongo Basin east into southern Mohave County, in addition to the Spring Mtns and eastern Sierra Slopes. Those high snow levels will limit our greatest accumulations to above 8500 feet today. HRRR suggests a pretty defined back to the precipitation shield will be moving from northwest to southeast this evening. Back looks to clear southern Nevada/eastern San Bernardino County around 8 pm PST, and finally Mohave County by 10 pm MST. Best shot for snow in Kyle Canyon will be this evening as snow levels lower with the exiting band. With the exiting band, hi-res models indicate a brief window of gusty wind as well this evening. A few gusts may exceed 40 mph briefly, don't believe it warrants a wind advisory. However, by Friday afternoon and evening as that next trough sags south a more typical wind scenario develops that may warrant a wind advisory. The passage of a shortwave trough will bring a chance of showers Friday and Friday night as well. .LONG TERM...Saturday through Thursday Continued unsettled and cool weather is expected for the weekend into the beginning of next week. Precipitation chances will depend on the timing and strength of multiple pieces of energy moving through the mean cyclonic flow, which is always difficult for models to handle this far out. So moderate confidence in the forecast for the weekend and Monday. Saturday currently looks to be the better of the days for the weekend, with most of the precipitation confined to the higher terrain of Lincoln and Mohave counties. It may remain breezy though, especially in the westerly prone areas near Yucca Valley and Morongo Basin. By Sunday, another decent push of forcing digs down out of the Pacific Northwest, resulting in another round of scattered precipitation across much of the area. By that time, the atmospheric river that has been plaguing the West Coast should shut off and the flow will be more westerly, so QPF will be lighter than what we have seen recently. Precipitation chances linger through Monday before the back end of the upper level trough finally shifts eastward and we should dry out Monday night through mid week. In its wake, cooler air will filter in on northerly flow and therefore well below temperatures are expected for much of next week. Forecast confidence quickly decreases for the end of next week as models have differing solutions on how strong and far south the next upper level system will dig. Another period of unsettled weather is possible, but will not invest much into forecast details past Thursday at this time. && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Rain and low cigs will continue through the day with cigs hovering around 2k feet and vsbys between 3-5sm. Heavier rain will return between 20-24z this afternoon with vsbys potentially dropping below 3sm and cigs to less than 2k feet. Northeast winds will persist into the afternoon with speeds generally less than 8 kts. Winds are expected to increase later this afternoon and become more southwesterly around 10 kts. Rain is expected to push east of the area after 02z with improving cigs and vsby overnight. Southwest winds are also likely to increase this evening with gusts out of the southwest approaching 20kts. VFR conditions are expected on Friday. For the rest of southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southeast California...Rain will continue through the day through out the region. Lower cigs and possibly reduced visibility due to moderate to heavy rain is possible at times through much of the day. Cigs 5k feet or lower will be common along with the potential of seeing vsbys less than 5sm. The worst cigs will likely be in the Sierra where less than 1000ft is possible. Heaviest rain will likely be south of highway 40 through San Bernardino and southern Mohave counties. The precipitation will end from west to east this evening and early tonight, with improving conditions expected through the night. Winds should increase out o f the south to southwest through the night though, with the strongest winds near DAG where gusts 30- 35kts are possible through the first half of tonight. Gusty winds may subside for a brief period early Friday morning but may increase again Friday midday. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...A weather system will bring heavy snow to the southern Sierra Nevada, less for the Spring Mountains through tonight. Locally heavy rain is expected for parts of San Bernardino and Mohave Counties. Spotters are encouraged to report any significant weather or impacts according to standard operating procedures. && UPDATE...Adair SHORT TERM...Pierce LONG TERM...Wolf AVIATION...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
921 AM PST THU FEB 14 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0825 AM FLASH FLOOD 2 NE YUCCA VALLEY 34.14N 116.40W
02/14/2019 SAN BERNARDINO CA EMERGENCY MNGR
PAXTON ROAD AT EAST BURNT MOUNTAIN WASH
CLOSE DUE TO FLASH FLOODING.
&&
DBPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS NV
1003 AM PST THU FEB 14 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0935 AM FLASH FLOOD 5 SSE WIKIEUP 34.64N 113.57W
02/14/2019 MOHAVE AZ DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
EAST ROAD WAS CLOSED AT BANEGAS CROSSING DUE
TO FLOODING.
0631 AM FLASH FLOOD 3 W YUCCA VALLEY 34.11N 116.49W
02/14/2019 SAN BERNARDINO CA FIRE DEPT/RESCUE
SEVERAL REPORTS OF FLASH FLOODING IN THE
MORONGO BASIN. HIGHWAY 62 WAS FLOODED IN
MULTIPLE AREAS FROM MORONGO VALLEY TO YUCCA
VALLEY. BELLA VISTA RD IN MORONGO VALLEY WAS
FLOODED WITH WATER ALSO ENTERING A HOME.
FLOODING CONTINUED AT LEAST THROUGH 830 AND
PROBABLY LONGER.
&&
MORGANThe Las Vegas radar (KESX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:41 UTC.
3 high wind, 2 flash flood, 1 strong wind. Local standard time, as filed.
The Red Rock Scenic Loop was closed due to water flowing over the road at mile marker 12.
The intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Cheyenne was closed due to flooding.
This gust occurred 40 miles E of Beatty.
This gust occurred 1 mile ESE of Red Rock Canyon.
Strong winds in the northwest quadrant of the Las Vegas Valley damaged a trampoline, blew a screen door off its tracks, and uprooted a large tree.
This gust occurred at Mountain Springs.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Nevada in 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in Nevada, February 2019
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: 805433, 805435, 805436, 805437, 805439, 805440.