Las Vegas chilled by winds

Mary Manning and Jerry Fink

Thursday, April 1, 1999 | 10:39 a.m.

A strong wind storm chilled Las Vegas on the last day of March with gusts that reached 54 miles per hour and temperatures reaching an overnight low of 39 degrees at McCarran International Airport.

As cold air roared into the Las Vegas Valley, temperatures dropped 20 degrees between 2 and 4 p.m. Wednesday, leaving residents and visitors who in the morning had enjoyed balmy spring weather suddenly shivering.

The winds died down Wednesday evening and were expected to be light today, between 10 and 20 mph, a spokesman for the National Weather Service said. The forecast for today calls for partly cloudy, partly sunny skies.

Winds caused power outages to an estimated 5,000 customers of the Nevada Power Co. Wednesday afternoon, spokesman Tom Henley said. All power had been restored by this morning, he said.

The outages included traffic signals downtown and at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard South and Sahara Avenue, tying up traffic in the evening rush hour.

The high winds also kicked up debris, briefly closing Casino Center Boulevard between Lewis and Bridger avenues to traffic in downtown Wednesday afternoon.

The snow level dropped to 2,500 feet as the storm swept into the valley from the northwest, where it had dumped snow Wednesday on the Reno-Lake Tahoe area.

High temperatures are not expected to reach more than 56 degrees and lows in the 30s are predicted through Friday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Skrbac.