Warm, mostly sunny Easter weekend ahead for Las Vegas Valley

By Dave Toplikar

Friday, April 22, 2011 | 5:24 a.m.

Sunny skies and afternoon temperatures climbing into the low 80s are heading to the Las Vegas Valley today for Good Friday services and Earth Day activities.

A dry westerly flow will be over the area today, with generally light winds and near normal temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.

A weak low pressure system will settle over the region for the Easter weekend, resulting in increased cloud cover and locally breezy conditions, the weather service said.

There will also be a chance of showers across portions of the Great Basin, they said. Temperatures will be fairly close to normal, ranging from morning lows in the upper 50s to highs around 80 degrees, they said.

At 4:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 59 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 56 degrees. The record low was 33 degrees, set in 1963.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 62 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 64 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 53 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 67 degrees by 9 a.m., to 76 degrees by noon and reach a high of 81 degrees by 4 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 80 degrees and the record high was 97 degrees, set in 1939.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 81 degrees by 6 p.m., to 73 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 69 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Saturday's morning low will be 61 degrees and Saturday's high will climb to 79 degrees, they said.