More cooling showers are expected

Monday, Aug. 16, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

After a blistering week that included heat advisories, Las Vegas Valley residents can look forward to cooler than normal temperatures for a couple of days, thanks to weekend rain, National Weather Service forecasters said Sunday.

Showers and partly sunny skies were to continue today with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening, Weather Service meteorologists said.

The threat of thunderstorms may also bring flash flooding today, prompting the Weather Service to enact a flash flood watch from noon to 9 p.m.

The high was expected to reach 98 degrees today after a low between 78 and 80.

The expected high is five degrees lower than the August average of 103 degrees and 14 degrees lower than the record temperatures for this year -- 112 degrees -- set on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Sunday night thunderheads pushing northeast over the Spring Mountains lit up Southern Nevada's skies with lightning, and a brief downpour flooded and closed U.S. 95 south of Indian Springs, Weather Service meteorologist Steve Downs said.

Winds between 35 mph and 45 mph whirled dust into the air as the storms thundered into Cold Creek Canyon, about 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

While the Las Vegas Valley received a trace of rain at McCarran International Airport, two Regional Flood Control District monitors in the northern valley and at Gowan Road collected 0.55 of an inch from a storm that pushed south across the valley in the afternoon.

A rain gauge in the upper Flamingo Wash in the far west of the valley gathered 0.28 of an inch.

An earlier flash flood watch called by the Weather Service for Clark County expired at 9 p.m. Sunday, but was extended for western Clark County, Pahrump, Amargosa Valley and Death Valley until midnight.

The thunderstorms subsided shortly before midnight, Downs said.

The clouds and showers will linger into Wednesday, when a drying and warming trend will bring the valley's temperatures near the average of 103 degrees.