Weather service has first ‘warning outlook’ on website

Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

The National Weather Service today had its first potential hazardous weather to post on its website's new "hazardous warning outlook" link.

But even though thunderstorms and hail could hit parts of Southern Nevada, weather officials say don't batten down the hatches.

"This is not a real threatening situation," said Jim Harrison, a meteorologist and lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Las Vegas. "This is an outlook, not a warning.

"Most of the time it will say the probability for hazardous weather is low. However, the meteorologist on the midnight shift felt this was something that needed to be posted to let people in the region know about it."

The outlook, a link started earlier this month, says one of the areas where thunderstorms could hit hard is the Lake Mead National Recreation Area south of Hoover Dam.

"The strongest storms could produce pea-sized hail and up to two-tenths (0.20) of an inch of rain an hour," said the outlook feature at the weather service website at www.wrh.noaa.gov/lasvegas.

As of early today gray skies hung over the valley but there were no reports of rain.

Today's forecast calls for a 20 percent chance of rain under mostly cloudy skies with highs around 80 degrees. Friday is expected to be sunny with highs in the low 80s.

Sunny weather also is projected for the weekend with daytime highs around 80. Next week, daytime highs are expected to drop into the upper 70s through Wednesday, the weather service said.

Raindrops fell on windshields throughout the Las Vegas Valley Thursday, but no rain was measured, the weather service said.

Clouds scooted from east of the valley and moved west around a low pressure system that sent the air counterclockwise.

A trace of rain fell before midnight at both McCarran International Airport and the North Las Vegas Airport, weather service forecaster Joe Nemeth said.