Highs in low 70s today for Las Vegas Valley

By Dave Toplikar

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 | 5:21 a.m.

It's a good day to get outside — today's skies will be partly sunny and temperatures will climb into the low 70s in the Las Vegas Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

But a weak Pacific storm is heading into the region north of the Las Vegas area.

The storm will move across the southern Sierra east slopes and across the south central Nevada Mountains during the day, the weather service said.

Occasional snow is expected over the Sierra this morning, with accumulations generally less than 3 inches and isolated light snow showers this afternoon and evening across the south central Nevada mountains, forecasters said.

The main effect of the storm in the valley will be an increase in clouds and in winds tonight, with southwest winds gusting up to 20 mph.

Thursday's highs will also climb into the low 70s for the valley, with afternoon high temperatures hovering just under or slightly over the 70-degree mark Friday through the weekend, forecasters said.

At 4:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 46 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 44 degrees. The record low was 19 degrees, set in 1939.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 45 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 45 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 42 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 54 degrees by 9 a.m., to 67 degrees by noon and reach a high of 71 degrees by 1 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 66 degrees and the record high was 82 degrees, set in 1967.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 66 degrees by 6 p.m., to 62 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 59 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Thursday's morning low will be 52 degrees and Thursday's high will climb to 72 degrees, they said.