A strong cold front moved through the southern Great Basin and the Mojave Desert, bringing strong westerly winds ahead of it and strong northerly winds behind it.
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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.
A strong cold front moved through the southern Great Basin and the Mojave Desert, bringing strong westerly winds ahead of it and strong northerly winds behind 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 Feb 2, 2:49 PM PST, 1 hour 21 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Las Vegas NV 249 PM PST Sun Feb 2 2020 .SYNOPSIS...Widespread high winds will develop this evening and overnight as a fast moving cold front sweeps across the region. Sharply colder conditions will follow Monday and Tuesday with low temps near or below freezing for most desert locations Monday night and Tuesday night. Light snow accumulations will be possible mainly over Lincoln and northern Mohave counties tonight. Winds will finally settle down Tuesday night, and a warming trend will develop the second half of the week. && .DISCUSSION...Confidence remains high that an intense incoming cold front will produce an extensive high winds...especially for much of southern Nevada and southeast California. The base of the cold upper low and associated cold front was pushing into northwest Nevada early this afternoon and the latest models take it directly into southern Nevada late tonight between 06Z and 12Z. The associated cold front will likely sweep across the area from Bishop to Tonopah by 6 PM this evening then it will gain speed as it moves over Death Valley and central/southern Nye County this evening and should reach the Las Vegas Valley between 10 PM and midnight. Prefrontal southwest to west winds will create a belt of strong winds across southern Inyo, San Bernardino, Clark and Mohave counties. Conditions are favorable for high downslope winds to quickly develop in the lee of the southern Sierra and Spring Mountains and will likely bring gusts over 60 mph northeast to east facing slopes and adjacent foothills before the post frontal northwest winds move through which will also produce fairly extensive areas of gusts over 60 mph in valleys, especially those favored by northwest funneling. Past similar events have produced widespread blowing dust down through Death Valley and the Highway 95 corridor between Goldfield and northwest Las Vegas so we will be closely monitoring that this evening. As has been mentioned, the thermal and pressure gradients are about as high as they are ever observed with an approaching cold front and this event is quite close to the event that produced over 100 mph northwest winds at Yucca Mountain and 67 mph winds at McCarran Airport along with widespread blowing dust on the evening of Feb. 13, 2008. After the front pushes through the region by about 12Z Monday morning, stiff northwest to north winds will persist but gusts should settle to between 35 and 50 mph across most of the region. High temps still look to be about 25 degrees colder Monday with highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s across the desert zones. Overnight lows will dip near or below freezing for most locations except from Laughlin to Lake Havasu. Cold and dry northerly flow will remain over the region Tuesday on the back side of the upper low as it slowly moves across the Rockies. Temperatures will climb Wednesday through Saturday as northwest flow become light zonal and highs rebound back to around 70 degrees by the weekend. There continues to be indications among the ensemble models of another deep trough dropping down from the Gulf of Alaska and ending up in the vicinity of southern California/southern Nevada by next Sunday. This will lead to an introduction of precip chances chances of precipitation over the southern Sierra and southern Great Basin along with forecast highs dropping several degrees, but confidence is low in where the upper low will eventually end up. && .AVIATION...For McCarran...Southwest winds will increase through the rest of the afternoon and peak this evening ahead of an approaching cold front. Westerly -- downslope enhanced -- winds, with gusts close to 50 knots, may reach the terminal between 03-06z tonight; however, if those westerly winds stay at bay, expect breezy easterly winds to develop over that period. By 07-09z tonight the cold front will push through, turning gusty winds to the northwest. Not to confident in the top-speed of the post-frontal winds, but 35-45 knot gusts are conceivable. Gusty, northerly winds will persist through Monday with gusts around 30kts through most of the day. Expect periods of turbulence (due to mountain waves) and LLWS as the cold front moves through. Ceilings will briefly fall to 7-8k ft overnight as the front passes but skies will clear out by daybreak Monday. For the rest of southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southeast California...Southerly/southwesterly winds have started to increase this afternoon ahead of an encroaching cold front. These winds will continue through the rest of the afternoon, with gusts increasing to 35-50 knots. Surfacing mountain waves may lead to locally higher winds this evening at airfields in the Las Vegas and Owens valleys. As such, areas of low-level turbulence and periods of LLWS will accompany mountain wave activity. Winds will remain strong as they shift to the north/northwest behind the front later tonight. Strong and gusty, post-frontal winds will continue at all airfields through the night and into Monday. With the exception of Lincoln County, dry conditions and VFR conditions are expected at airfields. && .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...Spotters are encouraged to report any significant wind impacts from the expected high wind event tonight and Monday. && DISCUSSION...Adair AVIATION...Boothe For more forecast information...see us on our webpage: https://weather.gov/lasvegas or follow us on Facebook and Twitter
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
This gust occurred 3 miles NNE of Aspendell.
The peak measured wind gust occurred 4 miles NW of Independence. A big rig blew over on Highway 395 4 miles SSE of Olancha.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in California, February 2020
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: 877271, 877273.