108 degrees hottest May 22 in Vegas history

Tuesday, May 23, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

The weather made history in the Las Vegas Valley on Monday as the official high temperature hit 108 degrees.

That shattered the old record of 104 degrees for May 22, set in 1967.

It brushed the all-time highest temperature recorded during May in Las Vegas: 109 degrees on May 26, 1951, National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Schlott said. The day before that record was set, the mercury was at 108 degrees, a familiar number.

The normal high for this time of year is 90 degrees, Schlott said.

Southern Nevada will cool off to the high 90s by Thursday, but 100-plus-degree days are expected for the Memorial Day weekend, Schlott said.

This isn't the first time May has delivered some scorchers. A check of weather records dating back 100 years show some mighty hot springs, according to state climatologist John James.

The first 100-degree day ever recorded in May came on May 1, 1947, when the temperature reached 102 degrees, James said. That was followed by a very hot week. The mercury climbed to 107 degrees on May 2, then to 108 for the next three days before cooling off to 103 degrees on May 6, James said.

The good news is early heat doesn't always mean a long, hot, dry summer, James said. "It can be hot and dry or hot and wet," he said. "The weather has been acting weird lately."

While July 1931 was the driest on record, that August brought 2.8 inches of rain, James said. How wet the rainy season known as monsoon will be this summer is hard to predict, he said.

The National Weather Service began recording temperatures officially in 1937, but before then C.P. "Pop" Squires scribbled readings from the thermometer in his back yard off Fremont Street.

The hottest temperature Squires ever recorded in May was a scorching 114 degrees on May 30, 1920, James said.

The coolest May day was May 5, 1910, when Squires' thermometer registered 28 degrees.

The hottest readings were 118 degrees in July 1931 noted by Squires and 117 degrees on July 24, 1942, at McCarran Airport. The lowest reading came on Jan. 25, 1953, with 8 degrees at McCarran.