Power back on for nearly all in Las Vegas after weekend winds
Less than 200 NV Energy customers remained without power Monday morning after high winds swept through the Las Vegas Valley over the weekend.
About 6,000 customers had power restored shortly after 6 a.m., according to the NV Energy outages website.
The largest outage remaining early Monday was south of St. Rose Parkway and the 215 Beltway along South Eastern Avenue and Horizon Ridge where power was restored shortly after 6 a.m. Most of the 6,000 customers were in that area.
Yesterday's high winds caused broken poles, downed wires and other damage to our equipment. We will work around the clock until all of our customers are back in power. pic.twitter.com/oOqdkGYZVr
— NV Energy (@NVEnergy) February 14, 2021
A fast-moving storm with strong winds hit Saturday afternoon, toppling trees and traffic lights and causing outages from downed power lines.
The weekend storm toppled trees, power lines and traffic lights, leaving more than 33,000 NV Energy customers in Clark County without power by 6 p.m. Saturday. NV Energy brought in additional crews to help with continued repairs.
The strongest wind gust, 73 mph, was recorded about 1:45 p.m. at North Las Vegas Airport, National Weather Service meteorologist Barry Pierce said Saturday. A gust of 62 mph was recorded at McCarran International Airport, while Nellis Air Force Base had a 64 mph gust, he said.
Gustnado reports
The weather service also received reports of gustnados. Instead of circular winds developing in the clouds, a gustnado causes a “cyclonic circulation” toward the ground, Pierce said.
“A gustnado is just sort of a quick spin up toward the surface and not really connected with the cloud surface itself,” he said.
Along with trees in roads and power outages, the Las Vegas Fire Department said a “bouncy house” was blown onto a house in the west valley. Dispatchers were told that children were inside the inflatable structure when it was picked up by the wind, but all the children were inside the home when firefighters arrived, spokesman Tim Szymanski said. No one was injured.
Part of the roof of a strip mall was blown off on West Charleston Boulevard, Szymanski said. No one was injured.
Although the storm brought plenty of wind to the valley, the weather service registered little rain, Pierce said. McCarran, where the weather service takes its official measurements, recorded 0.01 of an inch of rain as Saturday afternoon. Higher elevations near Summerlin recorded closer to 0.08 of an inch, while the northwest valley saw 0.04 of an inch of rain.
Calm Monday, windy Tuesday
Wind conditions will be mostly calm Monday with winds of 5-7 mph in the morning and a projected high near 64.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for winds to return on Tuesday with gusts into the low 30 mph range. Wednesday will see gusts to the low 20s, according to the latest forecast.
Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Marv_in_Vegas on Twitter. Review-Journal reporters Katelyn Newberg and Blake Apgar contributed to this report.
