Icy, snowy roads in Mount Charleston area

By Dave Toplikar

Published Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010 | 6:51 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010 | 1:31 p.m.

A storm system is moving through the Las Vegas area today, bringing scattered rain showers to the valley and snow in nearby mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

Snow and icy conditions were reported at 1:10 p.m. on State Routes 156, 157 and 158 in the higher elevations of Mount Charleston by Robert H. Mckenzie, public information officer for the Nevada Department of Transportation.

McKenzie said chains or four-wheel drive transmissions will be needed for vehicles to access portions of the mountains as the snow progresses.

"Motorists are advised to heed message boards and only proceed if their vehicles are equipped with the proper equipment, snow tires, chains or four-wheel drive," Mckenzie said.

The storm was expected to bring up to 3 inches of snow in the mountains above 7,000 feet while most valley sites will get less than a quarter of an inch of rain, forecasters said.

For the Las Vegas Valley, the chance for precipitation is 40 percent until 4 p.m. and 20 percent tonight, forecasters said.

Overnight, temperatures reached a low of 42 degrees overnight at McCarran International Airport. The normal low for today's date is 36 degrees and the record low is 8 degrees, set in 1963.

Just before 6 a.m., temperatures were 45 degrees at McCarran, 42 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 40 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport and 37 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base.

Temperatures were 63 degrees at 12:56 p.m. at McCarran. The normal high for today's date is 56 degrees and the record high was 73 degrees, set in 1945.

Temperatures will fall tonight to 54 degrees at 6 p.m., 51 degrees at 9 p.m. and 48 degrees at midnight, forecasters said.

Thursday will be sunny, with a morning low of 45 degrees and the afternoon high reaching 66 degrees, the weather service said. Winds will bet between 14 and 15 mph, gusting as high as 24 mph.

The weather service said this morning that the jet stream is expected to send a series of storms into the West Coast beginning on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Periods of wet weather can be expected next week, with significant amounts of rain and snow in higher elevations, forecasters said.

The overall pattern is similar to one that affected the West Coast in January of 1995, when Las Vegas received 3 inches of rain, which is nearly three-fourths of the yearly average, the weather service said.