Arctic cold front heads for Nevada, spurs freeze warning

RENO — The first arctic cold front of the season is headed for Nevada this weekend.

Single-digit lows are expected by Sunday morning in the northeast part of the state and overnight lows below freezing are possible early next week as far south as the desert north of Las Vegas, the National Weather Service said Friday.

Much colder temperatures will move into the entire region Sunday night through Monday morning, with hard freezes in western Nevada and single digits possible in Sierra valleys.

A southern Nevada freeze watch is in effect late Monday night through Tuesday morning in parts of Nye and Clark counties.

In Las Vegas, high temperatures that were in the mid-90s (about 35 C) about a week ago are forecast to fall into the 50s (about 12 C) with the potential for rain in the forecast.

Near-record lows are expected in northeast Nevada, where below-zero temperatures (below minus-17 Celsius) are possible in Mountain City and at the Wild Horse Reservoir. Lows predicted for Sunday morning include Wells, 5 (-15. C); Carlin and Ely, 6 (-14.4 C); Elko, 9 (-12.8 C).

Highs Sunday will struggle to get to the low 40s (about 6 C) in that part of the state, the weather service said.

The high in Reno is expected to drop from 72 (22 C) on Saturday to 49 (9.4 C) on Monday, with lows in the low 20s (about -5 C) on Monday.

The Las Vegas Strip could drop to the low 40s (about 6 C) Tuesday morning. Even colder weather is forecast in areas subject to the freeze watch, including Mesquite, Moapa, Pahrump and Indian Springs.

“First freeze of the season is possible as low temperatures are expected to be in the upper 20s to lower 30s (-2 to zero C),” service meteorologists in Las Vegas said.