Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Snow flurries reported across the Las Vegas Valley

Snow 12 31 2014

Mikayla Whitmore

Snow flurries sweep across the Las Vegas Valley on December 31, 2014.

Updated Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014 | 10:18 a.m.

Snow flurries were reported across the Las Vegas Valley this morning, but they are expected to disappear this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

The snow started about 7 a.m. in the northern half of the valley, said Chris Outler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Like large swaths of the Western U.S., Las Vegas is bracing for unusually cold weather as 2014 ends and 2015 starts — the low in the desert city on New Year's Eve is forecast to be 32 degrees when about 340,000 people were expected to pack the Strip and Las Vegas' downtown Fremont area for festivities.

Henderson reported trace amounts of snow early today, but there were no reports of it sticking anywhere. The last time any notable amount of snow stuck was Dec. 17, 2008.

A layer of dry air was absorbing much of the precipitation before it reached the ground in the heart of Las Vegas, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Justin Pullin, and there was only a negligible chance of snow at night.

Click to enlarge photo

A fountain froze over at Tuscan Villas in Las Vegas, Nev. on December 31, 2014.

But snow was heavy enough in California to strand more than 180 motorists traveling in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. They were rescued by early today. The storm also dropped powder on very low elevations across inland Southern California and packed winds that toppled trees.

Las Vegas Sun digital coordinator Adelaide Chen and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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