Slow, steady rain drenches valley

Sito Negron

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004 | 10:54 a.m.

Winter weather stormed through California and eased into the Las Vegas Valley overnight Wednesday, dumping snow on the Spring Mountains and leaving the valley drenched by this morning.

Police reported 15 accidents with no injuries, and four with injuries between midnight and 8 a.m. That's a fairly normal set of numbers for an overnight Wednesday-Thursday, said Metro Sgt. Rob Lundquist.

The rainfall was typical for winter, slow and steady, well within the handling capacity of the flood control district, said Clark County Regional Flood Control District spokeswoman Betty Hollister.

"We're looking at a little over half an inch of rain on the west side of the valley, decreasing as we head east, with less than a tenth of an inch," she said this morning. "Winter storms tend to be more gentle and steady, versus the intensity of flash floods in summer."

The National Weather Service forecast for the afternoon was for cloudy skies, with more rain possible through tomorrow. Saturday is expected to be partly cloudy, with a chance of rain coming Monday.

The weather service measured 0.24 inches of rain at McCarran Airport as of this morning, putting the yearly total at 1.47 inches, slightly more than the average at this point of 1.23. Regionally, rainfall from 7 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. this morning ranged from 0.15 inches at Primm to 0.38 inches at Mesquite.

For the Spring Mountains, which are under a winter storm watch, forecasters last night were expecting 8 to 12 inches of snow at 6,000 feet between midnight and 4 p.m. today, according to Meteorologist Jim Harrison.

Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort in Kyle Canyon this morning was reporting that six inches of new snow had fallen in the preceding 24 hours.

An avalanche warning remains in effect for the Kyle and Lee canyons, officials said.

The unusual string of rainy and cloudy days presents an opportunity for Las Vegans to save water on landscaping, said Doug Bennett, conservation manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

"If somebody had five sprinkler zones, and watered for 12 minutes, they would use about 720 gallons of water," he said. With more than 300,000 residential customers alone, the savings in a single day could be in the hundreds of millions of gallons.

Bennett said the highest water rates in the valley are about $3 per 1,000 gallons of water.

"The rain only helps us if people respond to it," Bennett said. "All we're asking is for people to take 15 seconds to flip off their sprinklers. The landcape is already saturated. This is a very rare occurrence, to have this much rainfall for this period of time, and it would be a shame not to take advantage of it."