Second-straight heat record set

Wednesday, May 24, 2000 | 11 a.m.

For the second day in a row, the Las Vegas Valley temperature strained thermometers and broke the all-time record.

And while it was expected to cool off a bit today, the early heat had water officials worrying about supplies through the rest of the summer.

Tuesday's high of 107 degrees broke the former high for May 23 -- 106 degrees set in 1984, said National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Schlott.

Monday, the high reading of 108 degrees shattered the old record of 104 set in 1967.

Nevada Power Co. reported no new records by consumers gobbling up megawatts of electricity to supply air conditioners. The record for 1999 was set on July 1 at 3,993 megawatts, compared with the 3,635 megawatts demanded Monday.

The dry, high heat so early in the season brought some of the West's climate experts together in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Their major worry is supplying water to more than 25 million people who rely on rainfall and ground water for drinking and growing crops.

Southern Nevada Water Authority officials are also keeping a wary eye on the long-term climate in the Southwest, spokesman Vince Alberta said.

Southern Nevada draws more than 85 percent of its water supply from Lake Mead, which is fed by the Colorado River.

"We are still evaluating the impacts drier conditions could have on Southern Nevada," Alberta said. "That doesn't change our goal to conserve as much water as possible."

This year's local conservation goal is 18 percent and 25 percent by 2010, he said. Last year Southern Nevada consumers saved 15 percent of their water use.

Climate experts meeting in California Tuesday said natural drought cycles combined with Pacific Ocean temperatures and global warming could have impacts in the Southwest.

Dr. Glen MacDonald of UCLA has studied tree rings, fossils from lake sediments and analyzed those sediments. Droughts are natural for Southern California, he said.

"A decades-long period in the 16th century gives us the most immediate cause for concern about Southern California water management," MacDonald said. "Not only did this drought period impact California, but it extended to the east and caused sharp decreases in the flow of the Colorado River. Such a drought today would seriously impact all of our major surface water supplies."

From satellite images gathered at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the Southwest could be heading into a 20-year dry spell that would cut L.A.'s water supply by a third, from 15 inches of rain a year to 10, researcher Bill Patzert said.

"In the last 30 years Arizona, Southern California, Southern Nevada and New Mexico have doubled in population," Patzert said. At the same time, the Southwest has experienced some of its wettest weather in the past three decades.

"If my colleagues and I are correct, we are going into another dry spell," he said.