Tornadoes · United States · Nevada · 2014

EF0 tornado, Nelson, Nevada, August 4, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Clark County on August 4, 2014, touching down at 12:40 PM PDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
August 4, 2014
Touchdown
12:40 PM PDT (19:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Clark County
Touchdown point
35.830, -114.870
Lift-off point
35.830, -114.870
Record number
1408041340-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A major surge of monsoon moisture brought an outbreak of thunderstorms to the Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin, with the most activity on the 3rd and 4th. Widespread flash flooding and severe weather occurred.

A small tornado briefly touched down in open desert east of Highway 95 near the Nelsons Landing turn off.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:24 UTC05:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
03:02 UTC06:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
04:05 UTC05:56 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
04:51 UTC07:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
06:06 UTC09:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryVEF
06:17 UTC09:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryVEF
06:31 UTC09:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
06:35 UTC09:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
06:58 UTC10:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
10:25 UTC13:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
11:58 UTC14:03 UTCFlood AdvisoryVEF
19:06 UTC22:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
20:21 UTC22:03 UTCFlood AdvisoryVEF
20:47 UTC22:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
21:16 UTC00:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
21:21 UTC00:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
21:28 UTC00:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningVEF
21:57 UTC03:23 UTCFlood AdvisoryVEF
23:16 UTC00:17 UTCFlood AdvisoryVEF

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:28 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Las Vegas, NV (KVEF), 12:00Z

7.7 hours before the tornado, 85 km from the path. August 4, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Las Vegas, NV at 12:00Z on 2014-08-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 6 joules per kilogram, CIN -61, lifted condensation level 932 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Las Vegas, NV at 12:00Z on 2014-08-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61 J/kg
Surface CAPE
457 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
932 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
25 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Las Vegas, NV (KVEF), 00:00Z

4.3 hours after it, 85 km from the path. August 5, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Las Vegas, NV at 00:00Z on 2014-08-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 650 joules per kilogram, CIN -48, lifted condensation level 1387 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Las Vegas, NV at 00:00Z on 2014-08-05The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
650 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-48 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1429 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1387 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
149 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Las Vegas radar (KESX), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:42 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:40 UTCTORNADO11 S Boulder CityClark, NVSEVERAL PHOTOS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWING A THIN ROPE TORNADO JUST EAST OF HIGHWAY 95 NEAR THE TURN OFF TO NELSONS LANDING. THE TORNADO TOUCHED THE GROUND FOR ABOUT 30 SECONDS BEFORE LIFTING. ESTIMATED EF0.
21:30 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.264 Wsw Las Vegas StripClark, NVA CLARK COUNTY REGIONAL FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT GAUGE MEASURED 1.26 INCHES OF RAIN NEAR TROPICANA AND TORREY PINES WITH 0.75 INCH FALLING IN 15 MINUTES.
21:43 UTCFLASH FLOOD5 Sw Las VegasClark, NVPUBLIC REPORT FROM TWITTER OF WATER SEVERAL INCHES DEEP AT TWAIN AND DECATUR ROADS.
22:05 UTCFLASH FLOOD3 Ese Spring Mountain RClark, NVBROADCAST MEDIA REPORTED FLASH FLOODING ON ARROYO ROAD IN BLUE DIAMOND. FLOOD WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 8 TO 12 INCHES DEEP.
22:17 UTCFLASH FLOOD4 Wsw Las VegasClark, NVA SWIFWATER RESCUE WAS CONDUCTED AT DECATUR AND OAKEY.
22:30 UTCFLASH FLOOD5 Wsw Las Vegas StripClark, NVSOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO SHOWED WATER EST. 5 INCHES DEEP FLOWING OVER ROAD AT TROPICANA AND RAINBOW BLVD INTERSECTION. FLOOD CONTROL WASHES FULL IN THE AREA.
22:30 UTCFLASH FLOODLas VegasClark, NVA LARGE SECTION OF A CONCRETE BLOCK WALL WAS KNOCKED DOWN BY FLOODWATERS.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in NevadaEvery tornado in Nevada since 1950Warnings in force in Nevada nowThe forecast where you are

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.