A rare humid morning in Las Vegas foreshadowed the possibility of more storms Friday, following a night of heavy monsoonal rains and lightning.
A rare humid morning in Las Vegas foreshadowed the possibility of more storms Friday, following a night of heavy monsoonal rains and lightning.
National Weather Service meteorologist Andy Gorelow said the area has a 40 percent chance of rain between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Friday.
Las Vegas woke up to widespread debris in roadways on Friday morning, especially in the downtown Mayfair neighborhood and on Maryland Parkway from Charleston Boulevard to Owens Avenue, according to a tweet from the city. The Mayfair neighborhood, which dates to the 194os, is generally located east of Maryland, between Oakey Boulevard and St. Louis Avenue.
Thursday night saw heavy rain sweep through the valley, where more than an inch was recorded in central Las Vegas and the Strip. Friday morning was met with a high of 101 and 65 percent humidity at Harry Reid International Airport as of 9 a.m., following reports of sporadic flooding the previous night in roads and casinos.
Gorelow said that after several years of less active monsoon seasons, Thursday night’s storm brought the heaviest July rainfall the valley has experienced since 2018.
“Personally, it was one of the best storms I have seen in 20 years,” he said. “I haven’t seen lightning like that in a very long time.”
The weather service measured 0.32 inches at the airport, where the agency takes official measurements. But the Clark County Regional Flood Control District measured rainfall up to an inch in downtown Las Vegas, near the Strip and in the outskirts of the valley, according to online rainfall data.
Meteorologist Barry Pierce said the strongest wind gust was 71 mph at Flamingo Road and Eastern Avenue.
Two cells moved into the south suburbs shortly after 10 p.m., one over Henderson and the other near Sloan.
At 10:12 p.m., NV Energy reported about 7,300 customers without power, with most in the central and eastern parts of the valley. There were small outages throughout the valley Friday morning, with the most significant in the 89101 ZIP code, where more than 200 customers were without power as of about 11 a.m., according to the NV Energy website.
There were also unconfirmed reports of water damage inside the Circa sportsbook and Caesars Palace on Thursday night.
Dayna Calkins, a spokeswoman for Caesars Entertainment, said some properties had minor damage during the storm but were operating normally on Friday with repairs underway.
In the storm’s aftermath, about 15 intersections or streets were closed as of 11:35 p.m., according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
The Las Vegas Fire Department responded to 330 calls between 9 p.m. and midnight, most of which were related to the storm, the city said in a statement Friday morning.
Seven people were rescued from floodwaters, and firefighters assisted with 22 accidents and 15 outside fires.
A Las Vegas Review-Journal photographer said all of the lights on the Fremont Street Experience were out, as well as some lighting at the Golden Nugget.
The storm caused a temporary outage of the canopy, but there was no storm-related damage at the promenade, Andrew Simon, the president and CEO of the Fremont Street Experience, said in an emailed statement. Business was operating as normal on Friday.
Winds were blowing 40 to 50 mph in downtown Las Vegas around 9 p.m. A gust of 54 mph was recorded at Decatur Boulevard and the 215 Beltway on the north side, said Trevor Boucher of the National Weather Service.
Around 9:45 p.m., Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Aaron Lee said there were about eight vehicle crashes valleywide since the rain began about an hour earlier.
One vehicle was stuck under floodwaters at South Commerce Street and West Charleston Boulevard, according to Lee. He said water continued to rise in the area of Maryland Parkway and Charleston.
“There is a tree fallen at Stewart and 13th Street which is partially blocking the road,” Lee said earlier.
Just south of downtown, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center experienced minor flooding from the storm, but it did not disrupt hospital operations, hospital spokesperson Mussi Marissa said.
Several areas in the valley had received nearly an inch or more of rain overnight, according to the Flood Control District’s online rainfall gauges. They included: Desert Inn Road and Las Vegas Boulevard (1.06), the Tropicana Wash at Flamingo Road and University Center Drive (1.02), downtown Las Vegas at Clark Avenue and Third Street (0.91), the far southwest valley near the Chimera Golf Club (1.34), south of Heritage Park in Henderson (0.98) and the far west valley near the Rhodes Ranch Golf Club (1.06).
Many parts of the valley received a half-inch or more, and pea-sized hail was reported in Henderson.
And now with hail pic.twitter.com/uzyc77xXs3
— Carri Geer Thevenot (@CarriGeer) July 29, 2022
Earlier Thursday, two storm cells of moderate strength approached Las Vegas from the north around 7:45 p.m., prompting a severe thunderstorm warning for the northern half of the valley. Rain began falling around the north 215 Beltway around 8:35 p.m. before moving south.
Harry Reid International Airport saw some departure delays, with some averaging about 50 minutes.
The Regional Flood Control District said in a tweet that the water depth rose to more than 16 feet in the Tropicana Detention Basin near Russell Road and Decatur Boulevard as of about 10:30 p.m., although there was still “lots of capacity left in the basin.”
According to the North Las Vegas Fire Department, fire crews rescued a 56-year-old woman caught in the water at a wash near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Craig Road at about 10 p.m. Thursday. She was taken to University Medical Center with minor injuries, the Fire Department said in a tweet.
From Nevada DMV on Twitter: “The DMV office at 7170 N. Decatur in LV will have a delayed opening Friday morning due to water damage in several offices. Watch our website for updates.”
Pierce said the storms could repeat on Friday.
“We are stuck in the same monsoon pattern,” he said. “Storms move south from Lincoln County and any time from 6 to 10 p.m. could be another show with lightning, rain and winds to 60 mph.”
A chance of rain is forecast each day for the coming week. Highs will be around 100 with lows in the lower 80s.
Monsoon rains have been scarce in recent Las Vegas summers, but the valley has seen at least three widespread storms in just two weeks.
Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Marv_in_Vegas on Twitter. Contact RJ staff writer Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Review-Journal reporters David Wilson and Sabrina Schnur contributed to this report.
Thursday’s massive storm across the Las Vegas Valley triggered more than several memories of all-time flooding here.
Areas east of The Strip and southeast Henderson received the most inches of rain in the past 24 hours.
Drivers on westbound Washington Avenue are urged to use extreme caution.
The Las Vegas Valley saw its second evening of monsoonal storms Thursday night.
Monsoonal rain or storms will be a possibility through the weekend and beyond in the Las Vegas area, says the National Weather Service.
A large portion of the valley saw at least a little bit of rain Wednesday. Winds up to 60 mph were recorded near Nellis Air Force Base.
Police closed a thoroughfare in the southern Las Vegas Valley on Monday afternoon after thunderstorms left heavy rainfall in the area.
Scattered thunderstorms fell across parts of Las Vegas on Monday, especially in the northeast and southwest portions of the valley.
Between 1 to 2 inches of rain fell between Valentine and Peach Springs, Arizona, and also across the area between Route 66 and Interstate 40. Flash flooding was ongoing, the National Weather Service said.
The heat spell will wind down this weekend before a prolonged chance of monsoon rain arrives Monday, the National Weather Service says.
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