The most “uneasy” summer monsoon season of the decade turned deadly Thursday as intense lightning and thunderstorms lashed parts of southern Nevada and a leaking roof forced table games to halt at a Las Vegas Strip casino. A man’s body was found Friday by public works crews and firefighters clearing debris from a flood channel near the Las Vegas Boulevard resort area where a person died about midnight despite being pulled from floodwaters by firefighters, said Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Billy Samuels. The Clark County medical examiner did not immediately release the identities or causes of death in either case. Water also flowed through a flood channel of the parking structure near The Linq hotel and the High Roller observation wheel, and posts on social media showed water leaking from the roof onto gaming tables at the Planet Hollywood resort. No other injuries were reported. Officials at Caesars Entertainment Inc., the owner of both properties, did not immediately return messages about damage. The overnight storm was similar to another that swept through Las Vegas two weeks earlier, late on July 28. Friday dawned with clear skies, but the National Weather Service reported thunderstorms through the afternoon north and east of the Las Vegas Valley. He said heavy rain, frequent lightning and gusty winds would be possible in the event of storms A flood watch was in effect throughout the day for southern Nevada and neighboring counties: Mohave in northwest Arizona and San Bernardino in California. Meteorologist Brian Plants said about 3.2 centimeters of rain fell overnight in some areas west of the Las Vegas Strip and near the northwestern Arizona city of Kingman. A gauge in Arizona’s Hualapai Mountains recorded nearly 2.5 inches (6.3 centimeters) of rain Thursday, Planz said, and some Mohave County desert roads prone to flash flooding were rendered impassable by running water. Social media video shows water over the hoods of cars at some Las Vegas intersections and washing down the door steps of a bus plowing through floodwaters. Winds were not widespread late Thursday, but the weather service recorded a gust of 64 mph (103 km/h) at the North Las Vegas airport. No damage was reported. Planz said 0.58 inches (1.47 centimeters) of rain was recorded at the official measuring point at Harry Reid International Airport, bringing the total to 1.28 inches (3.25 centimeters) during the monsoon season from June 15 to 30 September. “This makes it the wettest monsoon season in ten years,” the weather service said in a Tweet chart labeled “Restless 2022 Monsoon”. An estimated 3.63 inches (9.2 cm) of summer rain fell in the area in 2012, but only a trace in 2020. The Las Vegas area typically receives about 4.2 inches (10.7 cm) of rain per year. Planz said forecasts call for more storms through next week, fueled by warm air and moisture drawn north from the Gulf of California. “There’s really no sign that the monsoon is going to stop anytime soon, so we’ll continue to see the chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms throughout the afternoon and evening,” Planz said.
