Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Top Ten Weather Events in Nevada Over the Past 100 Years

By then, a quarter of the cattle in Nevada were dead and normally balmy Las Vegas had seen a foot and a half of snow.

Forecasters who have analyzed Nevada weather for years call that blizzard 51 years ago the storm of the century.

The informal survey also puts a New Year's weekend No. 2 with the western Nevada flood of 1997.

Flooding plays a large part after that - western Nevada in 1950, El Dorado Canyon in September 1974, Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Strip in July 1975, Moapa Valley in August 1981, Las Vegas in July 1999, Elko in August 1970.

Then, it's the winter storm in western Nevada in February 1989 and, finally, last summer's wildfires.

The National Weather Service analyzed impacts on people, property and the economy while conceding that recent events get more attention. It said that's because of better record keeping and how much this century's growth affects people and the economy.

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1. The winter of 1948-1949 was the snowiest winter on record for Nevada. Highways in northern and eastern Nevada were closed by drifts 12-15 feet deep. A large airlift operation to get hay to stranded livestock across northern and eastern Nevada was too late for 25 percent of the animals. Las Vegas got nearly 10 inches of snow in January and about 17 inches for the season.

2. On Dec. 30, 1996, a series of subtropical storms moved into western Nevada dropping rain atop an unseasonably high Sierra Nevada snow pack. All three major river basins in the Eastern Sierra had devastating flooding. Two died in what's considered the most damaging and costly event on record, with regional damages of over $500 million.

3. Nov. 13-Dec. 8, 1950 saw a series of very warm storms move across western Nevada melting much of the early Sierra snowpack. Much of downtown Reno was flooded and flooding occurred along the East Fork of the Carson River and the West Walker River. Two people died and damage was estimated at $4.4 million.

4. A thunderstorm produced a wall of water down El Dorado Canyon that destroyed the settlement of Nelson's Landing and killed at least nine people.

5. A large thunderstorm caused the highest recorded peak flows along the strip, sweeping away two lives and more than 100 cars. Damage was estimated at up to $5 million.

6. A complex of thunderstorms developed over northeast Clark County causing a massive flood that killed 700 cattle at a dairy farm.

7. A series of powerful thunderstorms dropped a deluge of up to 3 inches in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, killing one and causing damage estimated at $23 million.

8. A thunderstorm dumped 3.64 inches in one hour in Elko which stands as the state record for one hour.

9. A major winter storm hit all of western Nevada. High winds of 85 mph were recorded at the Reno airport. Heavy snow then began falling, dropping 3 feet in the mountains and over 14 inches in the valleys. A cold Arctic air mass behind the snow dropped lows to 31 below zero in Smith Valley and minus 29 in Spanish Springs.

10. The summer of 1999 went down as the most active wildfire season in northern Nevada history. Over 1.7 million acres of land burned, the most ever recorded in a single fire season.

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