Thursday, July 4, 2013

A Tornado In North Las Vegas?

From the LVRJ:  A tornado-like system caused damage to structures destroyed a fireworks stand and uprooted 15 to 20 trees in North Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Firefighters were alerted around 11 p.m., according to Public Information Officer Cedric Williams.
“I talked to the captain on duty last night and he said he thought the fire station’s roof was coming off,” Williams said Wednesday. “He said it sounded like a train landed on top of the station.”
Missing roof tiles, power outages, vehicle damage and flying debris were reported from the blocks surrounding the intersection of Ann Road and Simmons Street, Williams said.
“We see that quite a bit around here when thunderstorms develop and rain evaporates,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Barry Pierce said. “The drier the air is, the quicker (evaporation) rises from the surface. So once it hits the surface, a release of wind can spread from the base of the ground.”
Similar systems, which Pierce called “microbursts,” are responsible for some of the fiercest wind events ever recorded in the Las Vegas Valley.
There were reports of minor injuries but no transports to the hospital.  http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/tornado-system-causes-damage-north-las-vegas
Las Vegas doesn't get real tornadoes but we get some powerful dust devils and microbursts.  We also get a lot of wind, sometimes winds as strong as a category 1 hurricane, especially close to the western mountains.

2 comments:

  1. Yes we certainly do get real tornadoes. 79 known since 1950. The most significant was 3/30/1992 a total of 3 tornadoes touched down with a forth funnel cloud that day in a mini outbreak. Study up then blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did they occur in the Valley or outside the Valley?
    According to this web site only 7 have occured in the Las Vegas area (and my guess, not in a populated area) since 1964 and only 2 on the day you mentioned: http://www.homefacts.com/tornadoes/Nevada/Clark-County/Las-Vegas.html
    And these are tornadoes that were reported in Clark County, not Las Vegas..
    Study up and then comment.

    ReplyDelete