Temperatures warm for tonight’s kickoffs

By Mary Manning

Friday, Sept. 26, 2008 | 8:56 a.m.

Although clouds are expected to increase today over Southern Nevada, they probably won't quell Las Vegas' summer-like heat by the time high school football teams take the field tonight.

The National Weather Service expects today's high to be in the upper 90s, which is five to eight degrees higher than normal. And players and spectators may feel a bit more humidity in the air.

The all-time high temperature for today's date was 106 degrees on Sept. 26, 1947.

This morning's low was 72 degrees, same as Thursday's reading at McCarran International Airport, the official weather station for Southern Nevada. This is the 22nd time this month that Las Vegas has dropped to 70 or above for a low temp in September, the weather service said. Las Vegas has already broken the record of 22 days set in September 2003 for the greatest number of low temps 70 degrees or higher.

Thursday's low brings Las Vegas within one day of the 23 days set in 2001, so days and nights are staying warmer. Thursday's high was a hot 99 degrees, but nowhere near the record of 106 degrees, which was set in 1947, the weather service said.

If temperature trends continue, Las Vegas is on course for September to be one of the 10 warmest on record. By Wednesday the average monthly temp at McCarran was 84.5 degrees, 2.1 degrees above normal.

For the weekend clouds will stick around, mainly over the mountains. While northwestern Arizona and Southern California could see some showers or thunderstorms, the forecast calls for warmer than normal with clouds. An isolated thunderstorm cannot be ruled out.

By early next week, however, an autumn weather pattern could chill the air enough to the valley to settle into more normal highs in the 80s. And there's a chance for cooler temperatures and rain during the week.