Nevada · Preparedness Guide

Nevada's hazards are shaped by its geography — the driest state in the country, dominated by the Great Basin desert, with two major population centers (Las Vegas and Reno) and vast stretches of near-empty high desert in between. Las Vegas sits in the Mojave Desert, where summer temperatures routinely exceed 115°F and the urban heat island effect makes nighttime temperatures brutal. The Las Vegas water supply — almost entirely dependent on Lake Mead and the Colorado River — is in a long-term crisis; Nevada has cut its allocation and invested heavily in reclamation, but the water future remains uncertain. Reno and northern Nevada burn every summer. And Nevada's casino-dependent economy means a major disaster can produce mass unemployment in days — as COVID demonstrated when 500,000+ Nevadans filed for UI in 2020.