Autumn weather may be just around corner

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 | 10:54 a.m.

Las Vegas residents face a couple of more days of 100-degree temperatures and the threat of thunderstorms before a taste of autumn sweeps the skies.

Light showers and thunderstorms skirted the Las Vegas Valley throughout Wednesday and overnight, National Weather Service meteorologist Health Orow said.

A flash flood watch for Southern Nevada expired at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

"There's nothing heavy, nothing like Tuesday morning," Orow said, adding that she had unplugged major appliances in her home during the height of the lightning and thunder.

Weather service forecaster Brian Fuis said between 500 and 600 lightning strikes were recorded in roughly a two-hour period in the Las Vegas Valley between 2 and 4 a.m. Tuesday.

However, the moist air mass that has pushed Southern Nevada rainfall levels to 5.29 inches so far this year will move east after Friday, Fuis said.

That's when a winter-like weather system is expected to plunge south and east from the Pacific Northwest, scouring the humidity out of the Las Vegas Valley and dropping the daytime temperatures into the low 90s.

The changing weather could bring breezes on Sunday and Monday, conditions that will contribute to lower temperatures, Fuis said.

While today's high is expected to reach 101 degrees, the high predicted for Monday is 91 degrees, Fuis said.

Tuesday morning's low could be around 69 degrees.

There won't be a drop of rain in sight, either, as the Southwest monsoon moves east.

"By Saturday much drier air will begin to move over the area as a strong low pressure system begins to form off the Pacific Northwest coast," Weather Service meteorologist Barry Pierce said.