Tropical Storm Hilary Update

We dodged a bullet in our portion of the Las Vegas Valley in regards to what is now Tropical Storm Hilary as it only gave us us a glancing blow. Yesterday around 8:32PM a short-lived thunderstorm hit us and that was that. However, the residents on Mt. Charleston (located in the Spring Mountains bordering the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley) weren't so fortunate. This quote is from Kevin Janison, a local meteorologist with KTNV Channel 13 News:

On Mt. Charleston: Lee Canyon has received over 8” of rain, Kyle Canyon received more than 6.5.” Clark County just released this:

#Hilary Update: The old town area in Mt Charleston has substantial flooding as does rainbow subdivision. Residents are sheltering in place. State route 157, and SR 158 at SR 157 is shut down, and the power is currently off. #Nevada National Guard is en route to assist. A boil water order has been issued. A shelter location for residents is at 2755 Kyle Canyon Road (the hotel).

At the moment I don't know how the south end of the Valley fared.

Here's a pic taken by Bettina shortly before the storm hit us. Opa Fritz

Hurricane Hilary Update

Hurricane Hilary has weakened to a Tropical storm but still impacting SoCal and the Southwest. We were led to believe that, starting around midnight last night, to expect non-stop steady rain, alternating between light rain a just steady rain. That hasn't happened yet where we live, but that's ok. The Vegas Valley is quite large at around 600 square miles. We live in the far northeast portion and I know from living here over 30 years that any weather event can be quite localized. While we can be experiencing light rain, the southern end of the Valley and the town of Henderson can end up being slammed by bad weather. So far in our neck of the cactus, the rain has been off-&-on light, not steady. Yay! And of course with temps only in the '70s & '80s, it's way cooler than the average for the month. Also Yay!  Unfortunately there's no recent photos to show as Bettina hasn't been out with the camera since yesterday evening, but the photos would only show gray skies anyway. Also, we'll have to wait for this whole event to be over until we know if there's been any impact to the water levels at Lake Mead.

Opa Fritz

Hurricane In The Desert!!?

We're in the middle of the Mojave Desert

Hurricane? Really?

To be fair, we aren't actually going to be hit by a hurricane. The Baja Peninsula and SoCal on the other hand may not be as fortunate. If you've been following the news you know that southern California has been under its first ever Tropical Storm warning (since that system was implemented back in the 1930s) since yesterday or the day before as tropical storm Hilary morphed into CAT 4 Hurricane Hilary. It's making its way up the Baja Peninsula and due to hit SoCal tomorrow. I believe by then, after hitting landfall, it will weaken in intensity but the major side effects of wind and heavy rainfall will be felt by nearly the entire Southwest. SoCal, Arizona, and Nevada will be the hardest hit.

The first flash flood warnings were issued here in the Las Vegas Valley yesterday ca3:45PM. By 4:30PM the Las Vegas Valley was being hit by rain that local forecasters simply referred to as the 'monsoon' rains (as we are still in the middle of the monsoon season). However, Hilary will be throwing a big monkey wrench into the mix and the National Weather Service (NWS) is predicting a year's worth of rain to hit us starting Sunday and into Monday. The governor of Nevada has activated the National Guard, cable companies are readying assets to ensure cable services aren't badly affected and NV Energy posted the following:

The utility company said that it is carefully monitoring the storm and “has taken extra precautions ahead of the storm to ensure the safety and security of our communities and our infrastructure.” Crews are on standby, ready to respond to potential outages caused by extreme weather. 

We still expect there to be power outages and cable disruption. Cell phone towers should hold up well enough I'm guessing. As a result of all this I may not be posting anything for a few days.

Yesterday

4:14PM The last of the blue skies for the day

4:28PM and the rain has started. It lasted until approx. 11PM but I was still hearing thunder at 1AM