Windy and dry, with highs climbing into mid 90s for Las Vegas

By Dave Toplikar

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 | 5:01 a.m.

After a couple of days of 100-plus degree temperatures, Las Vegas will get a break from the heat today.

Temperatures will be a little cooler — the high will hit 94 degrees, which is still about three degrees above normal, according to the National Weather Service.

About 4 a.m. today, winds were gusting from the west at 25 mph at McCarran International Airport. Breezes were expected to be about 10 to 15 mph from the north to northwest later today, the weather service said.

The weather service has issued a fire weather watch for Thursday afternoon through Thursday evening for the Las Vegas area.

Stronger winds, low humidity and warm temperatures will create conditions favorable for wildfires, forecasters say.

Winds will increase across all of southern Nevada Thursday afternoon ahead of an unseasonably strong area of low pressure, forecasters said. Winds will continue into the early evening hours before dropping off during the late evening, they said.

On Thursday, winds will be from the southwest to the west from 15 to 25 mph, with gusts near 40 mph, they said. Humidity values will be 6 to 11 percent, they said.

There will also be an increasing chance for showers and thunderstorms across the southern Great Basin Friday into Saturday, they said.

"It's going to be pretty crazy around here as we start approaching the Memorial Day weekend," said Kevin Janison, 6News meteorologist.

Janison said some winds could gust as high as 50 mph in Las Vegas on Thursday evening into Friday.

Saturday's temperatures will be much cooler, with a high reaching only 77 degrees, Janison said. However, the high will climb to 85 degrees on Sunday and then back to 92 degrees on Monday, he said.

This morning’s low at McCarran was expected to be 76 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 68 degrees. The record low was 48 degrees, set in 1980.

Temperatures at McCarran were to rise today to 84 degrees by 9 a.m., to 91 degrees by noon and reach a high of 94 degrees by 4 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 91 degrees and the record high was 107 degrees, set in 2000.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 93 degrees by 6 p.m., to 87 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 82 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Thursday's morning low will be 72 degrees and Thursday's high will climb to 92 degrees, they said.