Mountains get record rainfall

Eric Leake

Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 | 11 a.m.

Light showers washed the valley Wednesday and rain poured on Mount Charleston in a storm system that had mostly passed by this morning.

Most of the valley received a third to a quarter of an inch of rain in showers that started Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday.

Mount Charleston set a state record for the most rain in a 24-hour period with 8.7 inches in Kyle Canyon and 9.78 inches at the Nevada Division of Forestry fire station, said John Adair, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

"That is a very high amount of rainfall," he said. "Today we've had basically the brunt of the rain come through."

Adair expected the storm system to have passed the valley and to be moving toward the Rocky Mountains by Friday.

The rain kept guests at the Mount Charleston Hotel indoors and forced some to change plans.

"I had some people check out this morning because that's what they came up to do, go hiking," front desk clerk Cathy Tomlinson said today.

She said most people were pleased with the cooler weather and rain that left them with little to do except "just sit in by the fire" and drink "very, very much hot chocolate."

Snow fell farther up from the hotel. About 3 inches fell at the Lee Canyon ski area, Adair said. "We'll probably see some on the peaks when the clouds clear."

Charlie Schlott, also a meterologist with the National Weather Service, said he was collecting reports on snowfall from various Mount Charleston monitoring stations, including fire department outposts and recreational services.

"There's probably some substantial snowfall on the higher peaks above 9,000 feet, but we don't have anyone up that high the to give us exact numbers," Schlott said this morning. "The lodge is probably our highest monitoring station, and that's 8,500 feet."

Temperatures for Wednesday topped out at about 65 degrees in the valley. Today is expected to be mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and a high of 65, according to the National Weather Service. The normal high is about 80.

Scattered showers were expected to continue today with skies clearing over the weekend. Temperatures for Friday and Saturday were expected at about 65 degrees with overnight lows of 50 degrees.

The rains did not cause many problems in the valley aside from mostly minor traffic accidents and some small road closures.

Clark County Assistant Chief Fernandez Leary credited the lack of more major problems to the rainfall's early beginning the night before.

"It helped that people woke up with it and knew what they needed to do," he said. "Once the roads get kind of cleaned off and people see it all day, they tend to drive a little more carefully."

Roads are most dangerous when they're slick with oils when rains start to fall, Leary said.

Still, he cautioned people against taking any chances with flood waters.

"It's absolutely incredible what that water can do when people don't pay attention," Leary said. "Once they get caught that is a bad deal because you can't touch the force of nature."

Clark County Regional Flood Control District spokeswoman Betty Hollister had one more caution.

"It's important that parents talk to their kids about not playing in storm water runoff," she said, because it can carry pollutants, metals, and other debris. Hollister said Wednesday's rain was fairly typical of lighter and steadier winter showers and that summer thunderstorms are the greater flood threat.