Weekend storms dumped up to 5 inches of rain on western Nevada

Carson City weathered as much as five inches of rain over the weekend according to Shane Snyder of the National Weather Service in Reno.

He said across the area, there was up to 3.5 inches of rain.

Rob Fellows, Carson City’s storm water engineer, said Lakeview received 3.5 inches of water and Kings Canyon 4 inches.

But Fellows said the capital weathered the storm very well, that he hasn’t had reports of significant damage at this point.

He credited city crews.

“The biggest thing is public works crews are always out ahead of these storms checking areas we know have limitations. They really did a great job,” Fellows said.

He said the primary work is removing leaves and debris from the storm water inlets so the water can flow away and not pool up, flooding streets and buildings.

He also credited the work that has been done during the past decade or so to improve drainage in town.

“We’ve really come a long way with the freeway and all the things we did after those disasters,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff on the north side of town.”

Drainage is dramatically improved along William Street near the freeway that 15 years ago flooded even after a relatively mild storm.

There’s also the huge drainage basin where the bypass freeway will connect to south Carson Street but Fellows said there wasn’t nearly as much water down Voltaire Canyon to that basin from this storm.

Snyder said the weather service is predicting light precipitation today but that, “it looks pretty meek.”

He said the storm front coming later in the week will have more impact on western Nevada as a strong cold front moves in Thursday evening.

“Starting Wednesday night and early Thursday, there’ll be strong winds coming in,” Snyder said.

That, Snyder said, could mean gusts of 70 or more in the hills and up to 60 along U.S. 395 through the valley.

“Be prepared Wednesday night and Thursday morning to put things away or secure them,” he said.

That storm front, he said, could being “another good shot of rain,” although he said probably not as much as this past weekend.

“Still, there’ll be enough to cause some small streams and drainage ditches to fill up again,” Snyder said. “And behind that, it turns much colder.”

While this coming weekend will be a lot colder, he said it will still be mainly rain down in the valley.