Summer storm has little effect on drought conditions

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.

The National Weather Service is predicting only a slight chance of a repeat summer shower this afternoon after a brief storm brought thunder and lightning but little rain to the southeast Las Vegas Valley on Thursday.

No rain was recorded at McCarran International Airport, the official station for Southern Nevada's weather, Steve Downs, a meteorologist with the weather service, said.

The storminess in the Southwest this week did nothing to break a 5-year-old drought that has triggered wildland fires in Arizona and Southern California.

The amount of water at Lake Mead and Lake Powell stands at less than half the total capacity, and the projected runoff from the Rocky Mountains to the Colorado River is expected to be about half of normal this calendar year, Ken Albright, Southern Nevada Water Authority resources director, told his agency board Thursday.

The drought threatens water supplies on the Colorado River, which through Lake Mead supplies 90 percent of Las Vegas' water.

The moisture-laden monsoon winds are pushing to the east of the Las Vegas Valley for the moment, Downs said. The National Weather Service canceled a flood watch for Las Vegas at 3:45 p.m. Thursday

However, the monsoons can shift back across Las Vegas anytime through mid-September.

Some thunderstorms rumbled across the Spring Mountains west of Las Vegas and Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

The Bureau of Land Management responded to three small fires sparked by lightning in the mountains west of Las Vegas and put them out, a BLM dispatcher said.

A storm that hit Boulder City, 35 miles southeast of Las Vegas, and a thunderhead that sprinkled Green Valley both collapsed and contributed moisture to other thunderstorms forming east of Las Vegas.

Sun reporter

Launce Rake contributed to this story.