Brief storms move into Las Vegas Valley

By Dave Toplikar

Published Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009 | 5:58 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009 | 4:25 p.m.

An isolated thunderstorm over far southern Henderson produced brief heavy rain through 4 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

The storm, which was located over Anthem and moved slowly northeast, was expected to weaken as it moved northeast toward Horizon Ridge Parkway, the weather service said.

A Clark County Flood Control District Gage at Anthem detention basin reported less than a half an inch of rain from about 3 p.m. to 3:37 p.m., the weather service said.

About 4:25 p.m., rain was streaking the sky from clouds rolling over the foothills in the Spring Mountains in the south west part of the valley.

Today's forecast calls for a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms through 11 p.m.

Temperatures were expected to be hotter than normal today, reaching a high of 104 degrees. The normal high for today is 98 degrees and the record was 110, set in 1950. Tuesday's high was 102 degrees, which was 3 degrees higher than normal, but well below the record of 113 for that date, set in 1950.

Hotter-than-normal temperatures, plus the chance of thunderstorms will linger through the holiday weekend, especially if any moisture pushes into the Mojave Desert from Hurricane Jimena, forecasters said.

If the hurricane does track inland, the threat for flash flooding would increase, the weather service said.

At 5 a.m. today, Jimena was about 600 miles south of Las Vegas off the Baha Pennisula and was moving north-northwest at 13 mph. The maximum sustained winds were at 105 mph.

The weather service released its August precipitation totals for the area this morning, showing that the Las Vegas area is still well below normal for the year. McCarran International Airport recorded just 0.02 of an inch for the month. There were two days when McCarran got at least a trace of rain.

Rainfall totals were under 0.05 of an inch in just about all of the Las Vegas Valley for the month, with the highest amounts in the south valley, mainly in Anthem, the weather service said. McCarran has recorded 1.28 inches of rain for the year, which is 1.97 inches below the normal of 3.25 inches for the year.

Rain totals showed that most of the area saw below normal precipitation for August except for Bishop, Calif., where it was near normal at 0.12 of an inch, and Lake Havasu City, Ariz., where rainfall was above normal at 0.65 of an inch for the month.