Cold front brings rain, strong winds

Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2002 | 11:31 a.m.

Traces of rain fell this morning across the Las Vegas Valley after a cold front moved in Tuesday.

The rain poured about 5:30 this morning in The Lakes, while in Henderson only sprinkles spattered the pavement.

The western part of the Las Vegas Valley received 0.04 inches of rain, while McCarran International Airport received 0.01 inches, Donald Maker, of the National Weather Service, said.

The weather was blown into the valley on winds of 45 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Kim Runk said. The North Las Vegas Airport reported one blast at 55 mph.

The gusts kicked so much dust into the air, Manuel Torres couldn't see as he drove his white van down U.S. 95 about 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

"I had to put on my emergency lights," Torres, a driver for UCF Distribution, said. "I couldn't see."

North winds of 15 to 25 mph persisted through the night.

Southern Nevada's weather is colder, cloudier and anything but calm, in contrast to last week, when short-sleeved shirts and shorts were daily wear.

The unseasonably cold weather brought brief bursts of rain, power outages, roofs blown off mobile homes and downed trees across the Las Vegas Valley.

The temperature dropped 10 degrees in an hour Tuesday afternoon as the storm began to move into Las Vegas. The weather service reported 74 degrees at 4:40 p.m. and 64 degrees an hour later.

A total of 3,500 Nevada Power Co. customers were without electricity throughout the valley, spokeswoman Sonya Headen said.

"In general, they were small outages involving a few hundred people," Headen said. Many of the blackouts were caused by trees falling on power lines, she said.

Power outages peaked about 6 p.m., Headen said. At 8:30 p.m. electricity was being restored to about 900 customers near Nellis and Lamb boulevards in northeastern Las Vegas and at Michael Way and and Simmons Avenue in the northwest valley.

People leaving Las Vegas City Hall about 5 p.m. described the rain as "falling in sheets."

Yet Green Valley residents in the southeastern valley enjoyed partly cloudy skies and sunshine.

A 20 percent to 30 percent chance of rain continues through tonight, until the storm system moves east of Southern Nevada late tonight.

The daytime temperature is expected to struggle to reach 70 degrees in the valley today after lows from 50 to 55 degrees.

A gradual warming trend will boost temperatures in Las Vegas into the 80s by the weekend. The lows at night will stay in the mid- to high 50s.

The National Weather Service issued a snow advisory about 9 p.m. Tuesday for the Spring Mountains for peaks above 7,000 feet. One to two inches of the white stuff could fall overnight.

At the Mount Charleston Lodge rain drizzled down about 5 p.m., front desk manager Dee Freeman said.

"I've been waiting and waiting all day," Freeman said, describing the gray clouds shrouding the mountains.

"It looks like it wants to snow," Freeman said.

By 8 p.m. Tuesday the thermometer had dropped to 32 degrees in the town of Mount Charleston and by 11 p.m. the temp was 28 degrees and it was snowing.

By this morning only a trace of snow had fallen and had melted by dawn, the National Weather Service said.

Northeast of Las Vegas in Lincoln County up to 10 inches of snow was forecast for the mountains above 7,000 feet.