By Mary Manning

Thu, Jan 27, 2005 (9:35 a.m.)

As warm rain surged into Southern Nevada Wednesday from the south, biologists got a surprise at the Red Rock National Conservation Area when Mojave Max, a desert tortoise in hibernation for the winter, poked his nose out of a burrow.

In a normal year, tortoises emerge from their desert caverns in mid-March.

With temperatures in the 70s last week and daytime highs in the 60s until Wednesday, the brown-shelled reptile cocked an eye to the sky, unusual behavior for tortoises in January, experts said.

"He's definitely responding to warmer temperatures," said Christina Gibson, a management analyst for Clark County.

Tortoises respond to changes in ground and air temperatures as well as lengthening daytime light, Gibson said.

Biology professor Ron Marlow of the University of Nevada, Reno, who studies Southern Nevada tortoises, said Mojave Max should return to his burrow within a week when colder weather moves into the Las Vegas Valley.

"If I was up there, I would have shot him," Marlowe said jokingly, since the county sponsors a contest for Clark County school students who guess when Mojave Max will come out of the burrow. The contest this year has barely begun.

"It's way too soon for him to come out," Marlowe said. "He only stuck his nose out."

Last year the tortoise crawled out of his hole in mid-February.

Tortoises can be up and active any month of the year, but it is unusual for the reptiles to appear in December or January, Marlowe said.

Mojave Max beat groundhog Punxsutawney Phil to the punch this year. The groundhog is removed from his burrow each Feb. 2 in Pennsylvania. If the groundhog sees his shadow, forecasters predict six more weeks of winter.

The behavior of Mojave Max was just about as strange as the temperature in Southern Nevada Wednesday. The thermometer ranged only four degrees between Wednesday's high and low.

The high recorded at McCarran International Airport was 56 degrees Fahrenheit and the low was 52 degrees.

"It's unusual to have a low-range temperature day there in Las Vegas," said Kelly Redmond, meteorologist with the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno.

The normal temperature range between highs and lows in Las Vegas is 11 degrees, Redmond said.

The warm rain, calm air and stable temperatures produced patches of fog throughout the valley after dark. As clouds drifted downward, they reflected an emerald green glow from the MGM hotel casino's lights on the Las Vegas Strip.

Rainfall amounts so far this month could put January in the top-five wettest years on record, the National Weather Service said.

Until midnight on Tuesday, Las Vegas had received 1.48 inches of rainfall, weather service meteorologist Charlie Schlott said.

With another 0.27 of an inch collected on Wednesday, the total of 1.75 inches puts this month's rainfall in fifth place. That record will change before the month is over, Schlott said.

Another weaker storm system is expected to arrive Friday and stay through Saturday, Schlott said.

Forecasters predict that February could be above normal in rainfall for Las Vegas, Schlott said, after which normal precipitation is expected in March and April.

"Next week we get a break and it dries out," Schlott said.

One bright side effect of the wet weather is that the wildflower season is expected to be spectacular, especially in the desert Southwest.

Death Valley, the driest place in North American, has recorded one of its wettest winters at 4.50 inches of rain at Furnace Creek, four times the normal amount for January, Redmond said.

Badwater, usually a white salt flat, has formed a shallow lake and the normally dry Amarogosa River has running water.