Still cold across Nevada, but better than Wednesday

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

Nevadans woke up to another bitterly cold morning on Thursday, even though temperatures had moderated from the previous day's records.

Ely and Eureka hit 13 below Thursday. But both towns had records of minus 25 the day before.

Las Vegas residents may have found a skim of ice on their pools. While Wednesday's lows hovered above freezing, Thursday's fell to 23 at the airport.

Reno dropped to 8, up 6 degrees from Wednesday; Elko to minus 3 after Thursday's 19 below and it was 7 in Winnemucca and Fallon, 8 in Tonopah and 4 in Lovelock. South Lake Tahoe, Calif., iced up at minus 6.

The Washoe County school system has issued a rare Arctic freeze warning reminding schools to protect their plumbing.

Schools were asked to add antifreeze to toilets and keep water trickling from taps. Thermostats were cranked up to 65 to 70, about five degrees warmer than normal.

Forecasters are calling for gradual daytime moderation going into the weekend, but little improvement in the lows, with single digits likely in the north and Las Vegas again slipping below freezing.

The cold snap resulted from an Arctic air mass combined with cloudless skies and a blanket of snow, said meteorologist Jim Fischer with the National Weather Service in Reno. The snow stops the sun from warming the ground while heat escapes more easily in cloudless skies.

"We don't get these too often," Fischer said.

In the Sierra, U.S. Forest Service snow avalanche forecaster Bob Moore went looking for potential danger spots and found a winter wonderland instead.

"Snow conditions just don't get any better than they are right now," he said.