Cooler temperatures ahead for Las Vegas

By Dave Toplikar

Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010 | 5:07 a.m.

Say goodbye to triple digit temperatures for a few days. Cooler temperatures and sunny skies are moving in today for Las Vegas.

An unseasonably strong area of low pressure will be over the western Great Basin, bringing breezy conditions and temperatures reaching only 90 degrees today, according to the National Weather Service.

Afternoon temperatures will be below the 100-degree mark for most of this week. The afternoon highs will be 90 degrees on Monday, 94 on Tuesday and 98 on Wednesday before climbing to 102 Thursday, Friday and Saturday, forecasters said.

The weather service said moisture is somewhat limited with the system and there could be a chance of showers today across parts of central Nye and northwest Lincoln counties.

Winds today will be from the south-southwest, with gusts as high as 25 mph, they said.

Low temperatures on Monday morning — dropping into the upper 60s — will be the coolest seen by the Las Vegas area since a cool spell in mid June, forecasters said.

At 3:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 74 degrees. The normal low for today's date 74 degrees. The record low was 57 degrees, set in 1947.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 73 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 74 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 71 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 80 degrees by 9 a.m., to 87 degrees by noon and reach a high of 90 degrees by 2 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 99 degrees and the record high was 110 degrees, set in 1948.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 88 degrees by 6 p.m., to 82 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 76 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Monday's morning low will be 68 degrees and Monday's high will climb to 90 degrees, they said.