Warm today, then winter storm moving in

By Dave Toplikar

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011 | 5:40 a.m.

Sunny skies and afternoon highs climbing into the low 60s are on today's weather menu today for the Las Vegas Valley.

But a cold winter storm is heading in Thursday for the weekend, bringing a buffet of cooler temperatures and a chance for rain Friday through Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

There's also a chance of a rain/snow mix in elevations as low as 2,200 feet by Saturday morning in the valley, the weather service said.

The storm, which is moving from western Canada down the California coast, will produce increasing west winds across the southern Sierra late Thursday, the weather service said.

Then snow will likely begin to fall over the east slopes of the southern Sierra early Friday and continue through Saturday, with significant accumulations possible even down to the Owens Valley floor, forecasters said.

Precipitation will spread across the Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin Friday night and Saturday, forecasters said.

At 4:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 41 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 43 degrees. The record low was 25 degrees, set in 1953.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 39 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 39 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 35 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 47 degrees by 9 a.m., to 58 degrees by noon and reach a high of 63 degrees by 3 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 65 degrees and the record high was 79 degrees, set in 2002.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 57 degrees by 6 p.m., to 52 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 49 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Thursday's morning low will be 44 degrees and Thursday's high will climb to 63 degrees, they said.