A map of 79 Nevada tornado locations for the last 52 years shows them mostly in western Nevada and Clark County with a Silver State tornado alley along Interstate 80.

This isn't because of some natural phenomenon that creates tornadoes in these areas. It's because funnel clouds have to be seen touching the ground by humans to be called tornadoes. Otherwise, it's just a funnel cloud. So the tornadoes that are seen are generally near population centers.

"We know there's potentially more tornadoes in Nevada, but they don't get reported," said Brian Brong, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Reno. "If the funnel cloud never touches the ground, we can't classify it as a tornado."

The website Tornadoproject.com keeps a database of tornado sightings nationwide. It lists 79 in Nevada going back to 1962.

Tornadoproject.com only lists three incidents of damage from tornadoes in Nevada:

  • May 26, 1964, when a small tornado damaged outbuildings on a ranch near Yerington. It said one man was struck and injured by flying debris.
  • July 16, 1973, when a small tornado touched down 6 miles north of Reno. One person was injured.
  • March 30, 1992, when one home was shifted and another lost part of its roof in southern Las Vegas.

"We do get tornadoes in Nevada. they are extremely rare," Brong said.

Still, he advises people if they see a funnel cloud to go inside a building.

Weather service radar can detect the makings of a tornado, but they need eyes on the ground to officially describe it as a tornado.

"It detects rotation within a thunderstorm," Brong said. "And then there's features within the radar data. It's called a hook echo. If this thunderstorm is showing a hook echo, there's a pretty good chance there's at least a funnel cloud and possibly a tornado."

In Reno weather radar, those kind of hook echoes are rare, Brong said. Part of the problem is that the storms have to be within 30 miles of radar sites. The radar looks upwards while the tornado happen close to the ground.

"The problem is our radar would tend to miss those signals a lot of times," Brong said.

The map below is from data provided by TornadoProject.com. Click on a pushpin to see the date and time of the tornado.

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