Record set on a cool April 22

Wednesday, April 23, 2003 | 8:34 a.m.

Spring temperatures took a break on Tuesday with the thermometer plunging to a record daytime high as a cold front swept through Southern Nevada.

The storm system brought snow and hail in the Las Vegas Valley and in the Spring Mountains, National Weather Service meteorologists said.

The valley recorded its coolest high temperature for April 22 at 57 degrees, Weather Service forecaster Brian Fuis said.

The old record of 60 degrees was set in 1967, Fuis said.

Normal daytime temperatures reach 80 degrees by late April, he said.

"So we were 23 degrees below normal on Tuesday," Fuis said.

At about noon on Tuesday reports of hail or snow came from Henderson and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

But not a drop of rain or snow was recorded at McCarran International Airport, the official weather station, as the storm system moved east, Fuis said.

The Weather Service office on Blue Diamond Road west of Interstate 15 recorded a trace of rain, he said.

The Spring Mountains received snow flurries, accumulating to about 1 inch at the Kyle Canyon Fire Station at one point, but the white stuff melted by 5 p.m., Fuis said.

After overnight lows in the mid-40s, today's daytime temperature was expected to reach 70 degrees, with drier air, meteorologist Larry Jensen said.

Another storm moving into the Pacific Northwest early Thursday will keep clouds and cooler temperatures in Southern Nevada into the weekend, Jensen said.