The National Weather Service Reno station had its hands full over Labor Day weekend as severe thunder and rainstorms impacted the Northern Nevada region. Snow fell on the summit of Mt. Rose, the road getting into Burning Man shut down, and surfers were seen riding the waves on Lake Tahoe.
In Mineral County, State Route 361 between Gabbs and Luning took most of the brunt of the storm as a rockslide and flooding took out a westbound section part of the roadway. Dime-sized and half-inch-sized hail came down on Sunday, September 3 and the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office warned everyone to stay away from the area as the collapsed portion of the road could get worse.
Kayla Anderson – Heavy rain and some hail fell in Hawthorne on Sunday as a monsoon system moved through Nevada.
On Labor Day, NWS Reno reported that it was quite a wet start to September, especially in the eastern parts of Pershing and Churchill counties when close to 2.5 inches of rain fell. According to its Public Information Statement Map, around 0.58-0.72 inches of rain fell within the three-day period.
“All of the main weather events [in Mineral County] happened on Sunday,” says NWS Reno Forecaster Scott McGuire. “There was a rockslide and flooding on 361 that took out a good chunk of the road and flooding on [State Route] 359 running south of Hawthorne,” he adds. McGuire reiterated that a half-an-inch to an inch of rainfall fell in the mountains around Churchill County, and the weather leading up to that caused some concern of flooding.
“The ground was already saturated from the previous day, and it was windy and cloudy- not allowing the ground to dry out- so it was the culprit for more runoff,” McGuire says. He further explains that the amount of precipitation Mineral County received during this period has only happened 20 other times in the history of the Hawthorne weather station since it was built in 1954.
NWS Reno Service Hydrologist Tim Bardsley says that in general, areas of Mineral County are on fairly steep terrain and the broad slopes coming off of its canyons can be prone to flooding.
“Alluvial fans are convex so water can gather in some surprising places,” Bardsley says. While he doesn’t know if this happened Labor Day weekend in Mineral County, the kind of topography prevalent in the area can cause debris to plug up the channels and create flooding. He added that SR-359 had significant weather events earlier this summer and it is possible that there was damage to the existing channel before the Labor Day weekend rainstorm further exacerbated it.
“This is the second wettest water year ever in Reno. It has been a busy active weather year,” McGuire adds.
