LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Heavy rain, wind and snow have been coming down all across Southern Nevada, impacting road and air travel right here in our valley.
This has led to delays and dangerous conditions.
WATCH| Ryan Ketcham. talks to a professional planespotter about high-wind gusts in the valley affecting air travel
“During windy weather, obviously it’s very challenging for the pilots landing, of course," said Professional planespotter in Las Vegas, Troy Mursch.
There was plenty of wind whipping near Harry Reid International Airport Monday, which led Mursch there.
He's been working as a planespotter for a little over 2 years, armed with his camcorder and iPhone camera set-up.
“You attach handles, it’s got a case, I got a telephoto lens hood," said Mursch.
He takes those up his ladder on his truck and films videos for his YouTube channel, Vegas Heavy Aircraft - LAS Planespotting.
Monday, I saw several shaky landings, but Mursch says it was fairly common due to the high winds.
“The daily flight from Korea it arrives from Seoul (ICN), they actually had to abort landing twice, which is a really rare phenomenon and they ended up landing on that other runway that’s in use, so third times a charm and we were happy to see them land safely," said Mursch.
While I was at the airport around 3:30 p.m. I noticed planes were not landing at the runway on Sunset Road perpendicular to the strip.
Mursch saw the same and told me they were diverting incoming flights because of the wind.
“They’re pushing the arrivals, the incoming flights to Las Vegas are now arriving on the runway that runs parallel to the strip," said Mursch.
That's due to the wind speed. Once crosswinds become too powerful, he says the safer option is to fly and land into a headwind, which is where the wind is coming directly towards you instead of sideways.
Impacts were also seen on the roadways, as rain came down all across our valley, leading to slick conditions.
According to NV Energy, more than 2,400 customers were left without power due to weather-related outages.
NV Energy Meteorologist Paul Fremeau says conditions and impacts are expected to continue.
“We’re expecting the impacts to last into the day on Thursday," said Fremeau.
Back at the airport, the FAA says the windy weather led to a ground delay until midnight.
The average delay for flights Monday was 108 minutes, which is 1 hour 48 minutes and the longest was 256 which is 4 hours and 16 minutes long.
According to FlightAware, there were more than 500 delays and 20 cancellations at the airport.
He says safety is the top priority for flying in these storms, so delays, cancellations and changes to a flight is done to make sure everyone makes it back home and to their destination safely.
“It never becomes a dangerous situation, the pilots are very skilled, they know the limitations to the aircraft, and in the event that they can’t land here they will end up divert to other airports because obviously safety first," said Mursch.
We will continue to follow all the latest with this storm moving through our valley.
If you have any issues related to this storm, please let us know.
