Winter is going out with a flurry of activity

Monday, March 18, 2002 | 10:57 a.m.

Spring may be arriving on Wednesday, but winter weather continued in Southern Nevada today with cold daytime temperatures, rain in the Las Vegas Valley and snow in the Spring Mountains west of Las Vegas.

Before sunset on Sunday, snowflakes began falling at the Mount Charleston Lodge.

"It's light, barely registering as flurries, in my opinion," said Gabrielle Perez, assistant administrator at the lodge. She said she had watched black clouds build up and then engulf Charleston's peak.

The flurries changed to snowflakes and five inches of snow fell by midnight. As much as 12 inches of new snow was expected to stick to Charleston's peak by the time the storm system passed late this morning, a National Weather Service meteorologist said. Morning commuters throughout the valley today found droplets on their car windshields and slightly wet roads.

Officially, only a trace of rain fell at the weather service station at McCarran International Airport, bringing the year-to-date total to a trace. Normal rainfall for this time of year is 1.64 inches. The total rainfall through March 18 last year was 3.24 inches, the weather service said.

Snowfall totals for various locations around the valley were not immediately available. Officially, no snow fell at the McCarran weather station.

A March snowstorm isn't the most unusual weather event Perez has seen during her seven years on the mountain. Two years ago it snowed on June 3, she said.

"It's going to be a nice Easter," Perez said, "at least for skiers."

The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort near Lee Canyon reported a 20- to 30-inch base of snowpack Sunday morning. By sunset another 6 inches of snow had fallen and more than a foot of fresh powder was expected today.

The high temperature today in the Las Vegas Valley is expected to be between 50 and 55 degrees, 12 to 15 degrees below normal, the weather service said. The record high for today is 87 degrees in 1947. Sunday's high was 57 degrees.

A 30 percent chance of rain was projected for today with mostly sunny skies, windy conditions and unseasonably cool highs in the mid-50s. Winds out of the north at 20-30 mph are expected to decrease tonight to 5-15 mph, the weather service said.

The forecast is for weather to warm up for the last days of winter and first days of spring. Tuesday's high is expected to climb to the mid-60s. Mid-week daily highs of 70-75 are projected.

For Friday, a high of 75-80 is expected, the weather service said. The weather service had issued a winter storm warning Sunday night for the Spring Mountains to the west of Las Vegas and the Sheep Mountains to the north. That warning was lifted early today.