The top of a palm tree, snapped off by high winds, blocks a sidewalk at The District at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson Friday, July 20, 2018
Wednesday, July 25, 2018 | 2 a.m.
A microburst thunderstorm that blasted through Henderson last week left a mess of damage in its wake.
The storm mainly hit the Green Valley area Friday night, producing gusts of wind in excess of 70 mph and between 0.50 and 0.75 inches of rain in less than an hour, according to the National Weather Service. Some parts also saw hail.
The wind gusts uprooted about 50 trees at local parks and damaged the traffic signals and street lights along Boulder Highway at Galleria Drive and Gibson Road, city officials said. About half of the city’s street promotional banners, which hang from poles in various medians around town, were torn or missing, officials said.
Officials said the Henderson Multigenerational Center received minor fence damage, while minor roof damage occurred at two fire stations and to the parking structure at the west Henderson Police Station on Green Valley and Paseo Verde parkways. Additionally, the Henderson Pavilion’s canopy was damaged and won’t be repaired or replaced until late 2018.
Officials are still estimating the costs of repairs and cleanup.
A microburst thunderstorm is “like a big ball of rain, wind and rained-cooled air that hits the surface of the earth and pushes out, sometimes in one direction and sometimes in all directions,” said Kate Guillet, a weather service meteorologist.
“They’re not uncommon during monsoon season,” she added.
Henderson is no stranger to strong storms during the monsoon season. In August 2015, a weather event knocked down power poles and kept residents without power for 40 hours, city spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said. The cleanup took some residents two days to perform, she added.
