More lower-than-normal temperatures coming this way

Friday, May 15, 1998 | 10:16 a.m.

Enjoy the sunshine today, because the weather forecast calls for unseasonably colder temperatures to grip Southern Nevada for about another week.

This time blame it on El Nino, the phenomenon that heats up a patch of southern Pacific Ocean water, driving tropical fish north along with the storms.

While temperatures will creep up toward normal, the jet stream driving storms across the nation remains parked over the southern United States, instead of across Canada where it belongs this time of year, according to John Adair, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.

This weekend the temperatures will rise into the 80s, but windy conditions are expected.

A normal high for this time of year is about 87 degrees.

Instead this week Las Vegas shattered the record books for cold temperatures, Adair said.

There's a new low-low -- the temperature reached 45 degrees for the low on Thursday. The record was 46 degrees for the same date in 1942.

And, in turn, there's a record-setting low-high. The high temperature on Wednesday recorded 66 degrees, compared to the former record, 71 degrees set in 1977.

A year ago May 13, the Las Vegas Valley broke into the 100-degree range for the first time on that date.

This year, May brought a foot of snow to the Spring Mountains, burying cars at Mount Charleston and Lee Canyon.

May is normally the driest month for Southern Nevada, Adair says. Instead, a tenth of an inch fell in the valley, bringing the total rainfall to 4.36 inches.

The normal average rainfall for the entire year in the valley is 4.13 inches.

While this spring's weather pattern from February through May is much cooler and wetter than normal, Las Vegas can expect to sizzle this summer, if previous El Nino years are any indication, Adair said.

The 1990s has brought intense heat combined with paving over the natural desert soils of the Las Vegas Valley, creating an urban island effect. The heat trapped in the concrete and the hotter air temperatures could turn summer into a scorcher.

Even the Southern Nevada Water Authority is predicting residents will demand more water this summer, although the conservation goal is 14.8 percent.