Strange rainfall in the desert is something to which I am accustomed. When I visited Death Valley a few years back, the guide told me that he had not seen it rain at Scotty's Castle for years. Two Decembers ago, a freak snowstorm dropped 4" of snow on Henderson, almost causing me to get into an accident on the freeway. Last December, it rained so much in a 24 hour period that my house leaked. They're just not built for rain!
Sunday, a torrential rain fell on Las Vegas. It flooded streets, stopped fireworks displays, and knocked out power for 10,000 people, many of which lived within a few blocks (circa 1-1.5 mile) of where I live.
There is a great significance to this rainfall. The official record was 0.74" of rain, breaking the previous record of 0.42" set years back. This is also almost 25% of Las Vegas' average annual rainfall of 3.3". Up until today, our annual accumulated rainfall total in the valley was 0.1". Considering that it came in July is very unusual, because although thunderstorms are common this amount is not. I am unaware of any year on record in which Las Vegas received this much rain on any day in July let alone the month entire.
Rainy days are rare in Vegas. I pay attention to them. We have long wondered what strange weather we would have given the weather aberrations in other regions of the country. It was an interesting day, and then at the end there were even fireworks.
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