Mostly sunny and warm for Las Vegas

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 | 6:10 a.m.

Get out the sunscreen and the sunglasses -- another sunny day is in store for Las Vegas.

Clouds will gradually diminish this morning, leaving behind mostly clear skies this afternoon, with temperatures climbing into the low 80s, according to the National Weather Service.

A low pressure system will move east of the region today, the weather service said. Winds will be light and from the southwest, gusting up to 18 mph, forecasters said.

If you're traveling north of Las Vegas, the weather service says isolated thunderstorms may develop this afternoon over Lincoln County in Nevada and Mohave County in Arizona.

A ridge of high pressure will build over the region, leading to a brief warming trend on Wednesday that will send afternoon temperatures up into the mid 80s Wednesday, the low 90s Thursday and the upper 80s Friday, the weather service said.

Forecasters said southwest winds gusting higher than 40 mph are expected across much of the Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin Friday afternoon and evening.

Then a stronger storm will drop out of the Gulf of Alaska and bring another round of windy and cooler weather for the weekend, with mostly sunny skies and afternoon highs reaching only the upper 70s Saturday and Sunday, they said.

At 5:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 60 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 64 degrees. The record low was 45 degrees, set in 1977 and 1938.

Around the valley just before 6 a.m., temperatures were 63 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 61 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 56 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 70 degrees by 9 a.m., to 76 degrees by noon and reach a high of 81 degrees by 3 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 88 degrees and the record high was 104 degrees, set in 2008.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 80 degrees by 6 p.m., to 74 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 69 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Wednesday's morning low will be 63 degrees and Wednesday's high will climb to 86 degrees, they said.