Two low pressure areas interacted and brought widespread rain and flooding to the Mojave Desert. Two funnel clouds were also photographed in remote areas.
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.
Two low pressure areas interacted and brought widespread rain and flooding to the Mojave Desert. Two funnel clouds were also photographed in remote areas.
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 19, 8:10 PM PST, 6 hours 50 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 810 PM PST Tue Nov 19 2019 .SYNOPSIS...Two storm systems will bring widespread rain and the first significant snowfall of the season above 6000 feet through midweek. The best chances for heavy precipitation will be tonight through Wednesday, with showers lingering through Thursday, before dry weather returns Friday through the weekend. Temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees cooler Wednesday and Thursday, with very slow recovery expected over the weekend. && .UPDATE...Heavy precipitation event just beginning across the region this evening ans highly anomalous atmospheric moisture content combines with an incoming closed low. Heaviest precipitation continues to be favored across Northwest Arizona and the Colorado River Valley, where widespread rainfall totals of 1-2 inches are possible. In fact, localized pockets of training thunderstorms may result in very isolated totals exceeding 3 inches. Flash flooding will remain a concern overnight as this system unfolds. Further west, light showers have begun to break out near Las Vegas and expect this trend to continue overnight, though rainfall totals exceeding a tenth of an inch in Las Vegas overnight are looking less likely. Additional rainfall with greater precipitation accumulation will probably hold off in Vegas until tomorrow morning. Overall, the forecast remains in good shape. However, I did update the grids to boost PoPs to near 100 percent for areas where rain is ongoing. Also skewed PoPs downward through the early morning hours across our far western zones near Death Valley and the Owens Valley where dry conditions will hold on until stronger forcing arrives during the early morning hours. -Outler- && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Breezy winds have persisted through the evening hours, with winds becoming more south to southeast as rain creeps closer to the Valley. Gusts have generally been 20 to 25kts, and expect that to continue through about midnight before winds drop back to around 10kts with gusts ending. Low confidence that gusts will become more intense at times the next few hours ahead of the main precipitation, as isolated observations have reported sudden gusts 35 to 45kts due to virga. Continuing to watch rain move north and west towards the area. Current timing in the TAF looks good, with rain moving in after 06Z. Light to occasionally moderate rain is possible through the night at times. Ceilings may drop lower than current forecast, with BKN 3-5kft possible with any heavier precipitation. However, the better chance for low ceilings would be Wednesday afternoon and confidence is low in any clouds lower than 5000ft at this time. For the rest of southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southeast California...A broad area of rain with isolated embedded thunderstorms has pushed into the Colorado River Valley through southern NV into NW AZ this evening. MVFR ceilings and occasional moderate rain has been reported with this precipitation. Precipitation is expected to continue through the night over this area, with heavy rain possible and ceilings below 5000ft possible at times at IFP and EED. AT DAG, scattered showers are possible at times through the night but should not be as intense or widespread at areas further east. Elsewhere, precipitation will be slow to fill in, and should take most of the night for showers to develop. South to southeast winds will continue through the first half of tonight, with widespread gusts 20 to 30kts. Winds should diminish after midnight and would remain around 10kts && .SHORT TERM...through Thursday night. Things are finally underway this afternoon. Satellite loop showed the cutoff upper low west of the Baja slowly beginning to move northeast under the influence of the northern stream low center which was near San Francisco and moving south. Ahead of the cutoff low, moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Raymond was streaming north over Arizona and southern California, with radar returns slowly increasing and expanding this afternoon, along with isolated lightning flashes and strikes. High resolution models still show some instability from the Colorado River Valley eastward through midnight, which would support at least spotty thunderstorms until the air column saturates and wipes out the instability. As has been noted for days, the biggest concern has been the sharp gradient in precip amounts from northwest to southeast. The main change in the models this morning has been to shift and tighten this gradient somewhat, with heavier amounts up to three inches now in southern and eastern Mohave County and a very sharp gradient from one to three inches along the Colorado River Valley to less than half an inch near Amboy. The Flash Flood Watch for Mohave County and adjacent areas of Clark and San Bernardino still looks good, as does the Winter Storm Warning for the Clark County mountains. The models have pulled higher precip amounts a bit farther west into Lincoln County, which poses two problems - one, whether to expand the Flash Flood Watch there, and two, whether to add a Winter Storm Warning for the higher elevations above most of the towns. At this time, will hold off on that, but will brief the next shift to keep an eye on the precip trends in that area. Still concerned that the Sierra and White Mountains of Inyo County may not get as much snow as previously expected due to the slightly faster speed/shorter duration of the storm, but will leave the Warning in place so that anyone who has been enjoying the sunny and unseasonably warm weather up there can be aware of the sudden change. Still expecting the highest precip intensity to be over by Thursday morning, followed by chances tapering off from west to east during the day and evening. .LONG TERM...Friday through next Tuesday. As models work to resolve the exit of the significant weather system mentioned in the above discussion, agreement continues to increase regarding a follow-up closed low pressure system forming down the California Coast on Friday. This low pressure system shouldn't cause much in the way of impacts for our area and we can expect a weekend with clear skies, dry conditions and seasonal temperatures. However, the location of the aforementioned low will help determine the exact position of the dominant northwesterly pattern that will set up going into the work week. Through the day on Monday, a shortwave disturbance is expected to slide down this northwesterly flow toward our area. The deterministic GFS solution indicates this disturbance pushing directly through the northern portions of our forecast area bringing gusty northerly winds through the day on Monday - a forecast our local models are suggesting. Conversely, the deterministic ECMWF indicates this disturbance remaining north of our area with a marginal increase in northerly winds - a resolution that both the NBM and ECMWF ensemble members are reflecting. As a result, low confidence at this time with regard to details, but an uptick in northerly winds can be expected going into the next work week. Regardless, the approach of this shortwave disturbance could drop temperatures to below-average as we approach Thanksgiving. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Spotters are encouraged to report any significant weather or impacts according to standard operating procedures. The main concerns will be heavy rain and flash flooding in Mohave County tonight and Wednesday, and heavy snow in the mountains of Inyo and Clark counties through Thursday. && SHORT TERM...Morgan LONG TERM/AVIATION...Varian/Wolf For more forecast information...see us on our webpage: https://weather.gov/lasvegas or follow us on Facebook and Twitter
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS NV
1006 PM PST TUE NOV 19 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0944 PM FLASH FLOOD 7 NW VIDAL JUNCTION 34.27N 114.65W
11/19/2019 SAN BERNARDINO CA LAW ENFORCEMENT
CHP REPORTS NUMEROUS AMOUNTS OF DEBRIS AND
WATER CROSSING ROADWAY ALONG US95 NORTH OF
VIDAL JUNCTION.
&&
COPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS NV
1100 PM PST TUE NOV 19 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1058 PM FLASH FLOOD 1 WSW VIDAL JUNCTION 34.19N 114.58W
11/19/2019 SAN BERNARDINO CA DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
HIGHWAY 62 CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING. REPORTED
VIA TWEET FROM CALTRANS DISTRICT 8.
&&
COPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS NV
1105 PM PST TUE NOV 19 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1052 PM FLASH FLOOD 10 W RICE 34.10N 115.03W
11/19/2019 SAN BERNARDINO CA LAW ENFORCEMENT
CHP REPORTS VEHICLE STRANDED IN THE MIDDLE
OF FLOODED ROADWAY.
&&
COThe Las Vegas radar (KESX), 15 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 10:58 UTC.
2 funnel cloud, 1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Eagle Wash Road (a dirt road) was obliterated by flooding and will have to be resurfaced. Nelson Landing Turnaround will also have to be repaired.
A funnel cloud was photographed from Highway 95. The exact location was estimated.
A funnel cloud was photographed about a mile north of Highway 168 east of Coyote 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, November 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: 866026, 866028, 866032.