Easter brings sunny, warm and windy weather to Las Vegas Valley

By Dave Toplikar

Sunday, April 24, 2011 | 5:35 a.m.

Hang on to your Easter bonnet.

Although skies will be mostly sunny and temperatures will climb to the low 80s, winds could gust close to 30 mph this afternoon in the Las Vegas Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

However, the clouds that move through won't bring any rain to the Las Vegas Valley.

Weak low pressure over the Great Basin will keep a chance of showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms mainly over east central Nevada and northern Mohave County today, the weather service said.

Strong west winds will also continue over the western Mojave Desert, forecasters said.

Temperatures will get a little warmer today and Monday before a cold front passes through Monday night, producing another round of strong winds while ushering in cooler temperatures for Tuesday, they said.

At 4:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 61 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 56 degrees. The record low was 38 degrees, set in 1937.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 59 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 66 degrees by 9 a.m., to 75 degrees by noon and reach a high of 81 degrees by 4 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 81 degrees and the record high was 99 degrees, set in 1946.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 80 degrees by 6 p.m., to 73 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 69 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Monday's morning low will be 61 degrees and Monday's high will climb to 86 degrees, they said.