Humidity will raise as rainy season hits

Tuesday, July 3, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

Temperatures in the Las Vegas Valley are expected to reach 112 degrees or more today.

Wait, there's more.

Temperatures will remain at near 100 degrees, and humidity will increase as the rainy season begins in the Las Vegas Valley this week; its arrival is about a week earlier than usual, National Weather Service meteorologists said.

Residents don't seem to mind.

"It beats the snow," said Claudine Branchaud, who moved to Las Vegas from Providence, R.I., seven years ago. "I can handle it as long as I drink plenty of water."

"I never get tired of the sun," Bill West, sales manager at a valley car dealership, said. "The longer you're here, the less you mind it. It's only three months of the year."

The temperature reached 113 on Monday, according to readings taken at McCarran International Airport. The record for the date is 115, set in 1950.

It could get worse, forecasters say. The hottest temperatures recorded in Las Vegas came during a six-day period in July 1931, state Climatologist John James said.

From July 20 through July 26, 1931, meteorologists in the area of Nellis Air Force Base recorded consecutive daily temperatures of 114, 116, 117, 115 and 117. A thermometer in downtown Las Vegas read 118 on July 24 of that year, James said, although that record is unofficial.

Workers building Hoover Dam recorded Southern Nevada's hottest readings, James said. Somewhere in Black Canyon, where Hoover Dam was built, crews reported a reading of 128 degrees on July 24, 1931. "Trouble is, I can't make it official because the exact location of the thermometer is unknown," James said.

If June's hot streak offers any indication, official records are in jeopardy, James said.

Las Vegas averaged 87.8 degrees for June, which is 3.1 degrees above normal. Southern Nevada got only a trace of rain in June, compared to an average 0.12-inch, James said.

The intense heat Monday contributed to rolling blackouts and stressed air-conditioners to the point of failure. The temperatures proved too high for some.

American Medical Response answered three heat-related calls Monday afternoon, and one woman was transported to a Summerlin hospital, a dispatcher said.

About 1:30 p.m. the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety closed its Henderson office after its air-conditioner failed, manager Kevin Malone said.

It was the second time in a week that the three-year-old office at 1399 American Pacific Drive closed because of problems with the air-conditioner.

"The good news is that the computers didn't fry," Malone said. Air conditioning was back on at the DMV office this morning, Malone said.

Hot weather and air conditioning failure seemed to be common Monday.

"We're booked around the clock through Thursday," Kari Dezell, office manager of Discount Air Conditioning & Heating, said. Repair crews will be working through the Fourth of July, as well, she said.

Calls for repairs have doubled for most Southern Nevada companies.

"It's too much for us to take care of it all," Caesar Garcia of AMR Air Conditioning said.