Monday rain leaves LV far short of average

An evening thunderstorm Monday brought as much as half an inch of rain to parts of the Las Vegas Valley and wind gusts of up to 38 mph.

But the valley is still below normal for annual rainfall, according to the National Weather Service, and the snowpack in the Spring Mountains west of Las Vegas does not promise much help from runoff.

Less than an inch of runoff is expected from the snows that fell in the mountains, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Monday.

The water that will drain when snows melt on Mount Charleston, Kyle Canyon, Lee Canyon and Rainbow Canyon is expected to translate into 0.85 inches of runoff, said Jarrod Edmunds of the department's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

A normal average runoff from the Spring Mountains is 10.6 inches by April, Edmunds said.

The annual rainfall in the valley so far this year is less than an inch, according to the weather service. The average by this time is about 3 inches.

Most of the rain Monday night stayed in the eastern and southern ends of the valley.

Better weather is on the horizon starting today and continuing into the weekend.

A high of 74 degrees is forecast for today with winds gusting up to 30 mph. By the weekend, the Las Vegas Valley could record its first 90-degree day, weather service meteorologist Scott Cordera said.

Southern Nevada's cooler-than-normal weather began more than a week ago when the jet stream, a giant river of air that normally drapes across Canada, plunged south through California and Nevada.

The jet stream has gone north, allowing seasonable spring temperatures to return to Southern Nevada.

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