More rain records expected to tumble

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005 | 9:07 a.m.

A series of winter storms packed with tropical moisture and headed for Las Vegas will only add to weather records shattered in the first three days of January, forecasters said.

The days from Dec. 28 ending Jan. 3 measured the wettest seven-day period ever recorded in Las Vegas, National Weather Service climatologist Andy Gorelow and meteorologist Donald Maker said.

And as early as Friday morning the next winter storm system could arrive in Las Vegas, bringing more rainfall in the valley and more snow to the surrounding mountains -- a storm that could break monthly records for January, forecasters said.

The drier weather will bring a brief pause in a winter storm pattern that shows no signs of stopping, Gorelow said.

The snow and rain expected on Friday should taper off on Saturday before another wet storm descends on Las Vegas late Sunday into Monday, followed by another weather system in mid-week and adding onto the record-breaking storms already endured.

Gorelow said that from 9 a.m. on Dec. 28 until 9 a.m. Tuesday, a total of 3.04 inches of rain fell. However, official Weather Service records keep rainfall from midnight to midnight, bringing the total for the calendar week to 2.91 inches.

An average year's rainfall is 4.49 inches, so Las Vegas had 68 percent of its annual rain by Tuesday night, Gorelow said.

Included in that record is 0.81 of an inch of rain for Jan. 3. Not only did that break the daily record for the date, but it is the wettest calendar day ever in January. The previous record was 0.74 of an inch in 1995.

"If these next storms bring in as much precipitation as they look to be, this January will break the record for the month," Gorelow said.

It's a different story on Mount Charleston.

While there's 41 inches on the mountain, it hasn't set a record yet.

In 1949 a total of 100 inches of snow was recorded at the Mount Charleston fire station from snowfalls in January, February and March.

January 1949 dropped 16.7 inches of snow on the Las Vegas Valley, Gorelow said.

The recent rains and those to come are not expected to bring valley snows, however, since they are riding a tropical wave of moisture called "the pineapple express," drawing rain clouds from the Hawaiian Islands.