Thunderstorms sweep across LV

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 9:39 a.m.

Nature put on a fireworks display to rival a Fourth of July celebration Thursday night as the first thunderstorms from this year's monsoon season swept across the Las Vegas Valley.

Hundreds of lightning strikes were recorded over a two-hour period, mostly in surrounding mountains, but a few in the valley. Residents throughout the valley enjoyed the light show, standing on sidewalks oohing and ahhing.

The lightning produced a 360-degree show, much in the style of an IMAX production.

The storms rode a plume of moisture surging up the Colorado River and pushed into Las Vegas shortly before 8 p.m. They swept northwest, raking Nellis Air Force Base and the northwestern valley before dying down about 10 p.m., National Weather Service meteorologist Larry Jensen said.

More storms lit up the western sky as thunder rumbled over Pahrump, 60 miles west of Las Vegas on the other side of the Spring Mountains.

"There have been thunderstorms in the area for the last couple of days," Jensen said. "Welcome to summer."

Traces of rain dampened the northeast and northwest valley areas, but no measurable rain was officially recorded in Las Vegas.

Daytime temperatures heated the air enough to trigger scattered thunderstorms, Jensen said. It reached 109 degrees at McCarran International Airport.

The temperature was expected to reach 108 degrees today, enough to bring more thunderstorms this afternoon and evening, the Weather Service forecast said.

The huge dome of high pressure that sat directly over Southern Nevada and brought Tuesday's record temp of 117 degrees moved east and parked itself over Arizona and New Mexico, nudging the moisture into Las Vegas.

For the next week the moisture is expected, giving the valley a chance of thunderstorms each afternoon and evening, Jensen said.

By Saturday extra moisture from hurricane Emily could bring the best chances for showers and thunderstorms into Las Vegas, he said.

Intense rainfall embedded in mountain showers Wednesday and Thursday night helped federal firefighters keep the seven fires near Cold Creek and the Mount Stirling Wilderness Area, both northwest of Las Vegas, to one or two trees apiece, Forest Service spokeswoman Beth Short said.

"It's pinyon pine and juniper trees," Short said of the lightning caused fires. Two to three firefighters were being dropped at each fire in the rugged peaks on the western side of the Spring Mountains.

The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are watching the wild areas carefully after lightning sparked fires in late June that scorched more than 900,000 acres in Southern Nevada.

However, the long-term weather forecast released by the National Climate Data Center on Thursday may leave the Southwest high and dry during August, September and October.

The forecast calls for warmer than normal temperatures in the Southwest, which could mean Las Vegas could set new heat records, Jensen said.

Rainfall is expected to be less than normal, said climatologist Kelly Redmond of the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno.

July's expected rainfall is no guarantee that the following three months will produce heavy precipitation, he said.

"Whatever happens here this month does not tell us much about August," Redmond said. Typically when monsoon rains arrive late, less rain falls throughout the summer and fall, he said.

"It looks dry more than wet, if you want to go and bet on it," Redmond said.

Mexico's rugged mountains are wringing out Emily's moisture over that nation, Redmond said.

"Emily has slowed over Mexico," he said. That should keep its additional moisture out of Southern Nevada until Saturday.