Las Vegas to hit 90s for Memorial Day

By Dave Toplikar

Friday, May 28, 2010 | 5:36 a.m.

Get set for sunny skies, gusty winds and temperatures reaching only the upper 70s today in Las Vegas. But a warmup is coming on Memorial Day.

A low pressure system will move across northern Nevada today, bringing locally breezy conditions, with south to southwest winds gusting 20 to 25 mph, and somewhat cooler temperatures to the Las Vegas area, according to the National Weather Service.

There will also be a slight chance of showers across parts of the southern Great Basin, the weather service said.

A dry westerly flow will be over the area during the holiday weekend, with temperatures warming to around normal, the low 90s, by Memorial Day on Monday, forecasters said.

Although Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, it looks like Las Vegas will have to wait a week to get its first real taste of summerlike weather, forecasters said. They're predicting that the first 100-degree day of the year will be next weekend.

At 5:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 61 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 67 degrees. The record low was 50 degrees, set in 1971, 1964 and 1946.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 62 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 61 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 58 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 70 degrees by 9 a.m., to 78 degrees by noon and reach a high of 79 degrees by 2 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 92 degrees and the record high was 109 degrees, set in 2003.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 77 degrees by 6 p.m., to 74 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 70 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Saturday's morning low will be 63 degrees and Saturday's high will climb to 83 degrees, they said.