LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Rain, thunder, lightning and tornadoes. A weather phenomenon not many associate with the desert, but it can happen.
The National Weather Service reports that 42 tornadoes have been reported in Southern Nevada and Western Arizona since 1950. This includes Clark, Lincoln and Mohave counties.
Our region has also had six tornado warnings since 2005. NWS confirmed the last ground tornado was in 2020 in Kingman, Arizona.
The reason tornadoes don't happen as often here as in other parts of the country is because it's hard to get the right mix of weather elements going at the same time.
NWS Las Vegas warning coordination meteorologist Dan Berc explains, "We get the moisture and the instability that we need during the monsoon season, however we usually don't get that wind shear that's required for tornadic activity until we get into the winter months where we get all that wind that you know about."
Out of the two tornado warnings issued on Sunday only one has been confirmed via video to touch the ground in Northwestern Arizona.
The other warning near mesquite was radar indicated. This means what they saw on the radar looked like tornadic activity so the national weather service issued a warning. But there hasn't been confirmation yet that a tornado actually touched ground.
Unlike the Midwest and the East, tornadoes in the West are rare and usually weak, even under the right conditions.
"One of the reason we don't get as many tornadoes is because we have really high cloud bases with our thunderstorms. Under those conditions it's really difficult to get circulation that reaches all the way to the ground. However because we have that situation we tend to get really strong straight line winds with those storms," says Berc.
While tornadoes are rare here in Southern Nevada. It's important to know what to do in a tornado, flash flood or severe thunderstorm.
