Strong pre frontal winds were locally enhanced by mountain waves, producing isolated high winds.
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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.
Strong pre frontal winds were locally enhanced by mountain waves, producing isolated high winds.
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 Jan 20, 7:16 PM PST, 7 hours 18 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 716 PM PST Sun Jan 20 2019 .SYNOPSIS...A storm system will bring strong west to southwest winds to much of the region this evening through Monday afternoon. The storm will also bring chances for mountain snow and valley rain beginning in the Sierra this evening, spreading across the southern Great Basin tonight, and lingering in Lincoln and northern Mohave counties through Monday. Behind the storm, cooler temperatures and strong northerly winds will spread across the entire region Monday and Tuesday, with the strongest winds expected in the southern Great Basin. Winds could linger in the Colorado River Valley for much of the week. && .UPDATE...Made a couple tweaks to the wind grids. Overall forecast in decent shape. Still expecting mountain and downslope enhanced winds on the eastern Sierra slopes, Owens Valley, Spring Mountains and western portions of the Las Vegas Valley. Eastern Sierra slopes already starting to respond, but 00Z Las Vegas sounding showed quite a few inversions the gusty winds would have to punch through in Vegas. Nonetheless, warning now in effect for Las Vegas Valley and Spring Mountains, and eastern Sierra Slopes, while advisory still going for the Owens Valley. Of higher confidence is the post-frontal winds tomorrow which will be far more widespread. Nearly the entire area will likely see breezy winds, but advisory level winds are likely to be a bit more limited. Later shifts will likely need to look at products again for tomorrow, especially for Lincoln county and portions of the Vegas valley. && .SHORT TERM...through Tuesday night. Center of the long advertised potent storm was off the northern California coast early this afternoon, with a plume of high level moisture spreading high clouds over our CWA. The main effect from this potent storm is going to be wind. The existing warnings and advisories look good, and made no changes. High resolution models develop an impressive environmental critical level above the Owens Valley floor early Monday morning as 700 mb winds turn northerly, sending the cross-barrier component of the flow to zero, which should help westerly winds downsloping off the Sierra to push across the Owens Valley. High res models also still show a nice downsloping signature off the Spring Mountains into the west side of the Las Vegas Valley. Not especially confident on snow amounts in the Sierra, but see no compelling reason to move away from the Winter Weather Advisory already in place. Minimal change to temperature forecasts. .LONG TERM...Wednesday through Sunday. The region will remain under a dry northwest flow aloft Wednesday through Friday as strong high pressure is parked off the west coast. The models are showing a couple of weak impulses pushing southeast through the intermountain west which should help enhance some northerly winds over the eastern half of the CWA including the Colorado River Valley, but little else is expected as these push through as any rain chances will remain well east of the area. The ECMWF and Canadian models both show the ridge pushing inland with warming temperatures and light winds by Saturday. However, the 12z GFS is showing some shortwave energy dropping down the Pacific coast and undercutting the ridge. At this time, this feature shows very little moisture and wouldn't have a big impact on the weather, at least initially. However, until the models show more consistency will go ahead and discount the GFS for now and lean with the strong ridge the Canadian and ECWMF models are showing. Overall a warming trend is expected during the period with temperatures about 6-8 degrees above normal by the weekend. && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Winds will follow typical diurnal trends with speeds generally 6 kts less today. That will start to change this evening as southerly winds develop. A period of stronger downslope winds possible from late this evening through Monday morning possible with gusts 30-40 kts. Ahead of the strong winds the terminal may see an increase in southeast winds between 03z and 06z this evening before winds short to the west southwest. Considerable high clouds through this evening. Some lower clouds will likely develop tonight and be capping the higher terrain to the west of the valley. For the rest of southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southeast California...Mostly light diurnal winds are expected across the region ahead of an approaching storm system. Strong winds will develop in the lee of the mountains tonight with mechanical turbulence likely. Those winds will continue into Monday, but take on more of a west-northwest direction following a cold frontal passage. Light rain, possibly mixing with light snow possible at KBIH with ceiling around 6 kft. The rain and snow shift east across the southern Great Basin Monday with associated lower ceiling and mtn obscurations. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Spotters are encouraged to report any significant wind gusts or wind damage with the upcoming storm system. Otherwise, please report any weather or impacts according to standard operating procedures. && UPDATE...Steele SHORT TERM...Morgan LONG TERM/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
222 AM PST MON JAN 21 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0151 AM NON-TSTM WND GST 29 SSW TRONA 35.37N 117.57W
01/21/2019 M61 MPH SAN BERNARDINO CA MESONET
SQUAW SPRINGS RAWS SQSC1.
&&
AWThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Two sites in the Las Vegas Valley reported wind gusts of 59 and 60 mph as mountain waves enhanced strong pre frontal winds.
A wind gust of 60 mph was measured at the Nevada National Security Site.
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, January 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: 793722, 811598.