Very warm and very, very dry

Tom Gardner

Monday, June 2, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Las Vegas recorded its hottest May since airport records began and felt not a drop of rain in a month that generally left the entire state parched, state Climatologist John James said on Monday.

"It hasn't rained for so long things have dried out something terrible," he said. "It looks like it hasn't rained for months and months and months."

While most parts of the state technically remain above average in the amount of precipitation they have received since October, the surplus means little because it has been so warm and dry that everything has evaporated.

And while warm and dry are synonymous with Las Vegas, the city outdid itself last month.

The 81.6-degree average was 7.6 degrees above average and the warmest in 60 years of record-keeping at airport locations. Technically, a trace of rain fell, which means there was no measurable precipitation.

Twenty-five days warmed to 90 degrees or higher and five exceeded 100. Two of those days ended the month with record-tying readings of 106 on Friday and 104 on Saturday.

Reno has kept records for 119 years and last month was its seventh-warmest May with an average of 60.7 degrees, 4.2 degrees above average. Reno has yet to reach the 90-degree mark this year. The 0.13 of an inch of rain at the airport was 0.56 of an inch below normal.

After the December-January deluge across most of Nevada and the severe flooding in the western part of the state, James said the last four months have been abnormally dry. Las Vegas marked its seventh consecutive month with above average temperatures.

Even Elko, which tends to be a little cooler and a little wetter than other parts of the state, got into summer early with a 56-degree average that was 2.9-degrees above normal and just 0.22 of an inch of rain for a month in which exactly 1 inch is typical.

Elko did, however, mark a dusting of snow but even that - 0.3 of an inch - was an inch shy of average.