Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.
After a high of 105 degrees on Tuesday, the first day of summer, thunderstorms rumbled across the Las Vegas Valley on Wednesday and the air cooled down to 99 degrees, a delightful change for the Dimitrova sisters.
Slava and Daniela Dimitrova, who came to Las Vegas five and six years ago, respectively, from Bulgaria said they appreciated the cloudy and showery day Wednesday.
"It's nice to see rain in the desert," Slava said, echoing a sentiment shared by many valley residents.
The sisters sat outside a coffee shop in Green Valley Wednesday night, watching billowing black clouds over Lake Mead to the east of the valley and a sunset drenched in radiant pink light over the western Spring Mountains where wildland fires ignited by lightning still burned.
"I like it as long as it doesn't last very long," Slava, an accountant, said of the thunderstorms.
Daniela, an assistant manager at the MGM, said that she arrived in Southern Nevada during the 100-year storm that flooded Las Vegas in July 1999. "Everything was flooded," she said.
"I started liking rain when I moved here," Daniela said.
The National Weather Service forecasters expect thunderstorms to continue over the valley on Thursday, but there should be fewer of them.
The early start to the Southwest's monsoon season, normally blanketing the valley with flood-producing rainfall from July through September, is dropping little rain from dry thunderstorms in Southern Nevada's mountains and deserts.
At least 10 wildland fires ignited from lightning strikes have sparked the dried out grasses and brush thriving after heavy winter and spring rains.
In the valley it was a different story where rain set an official record in Las Vegas.
The Weather Service recorded 0.07 of an inch of rainfall at McCarran International Airport on Wednesday, a record for the date, meteorologist Clay Morgan said. The old record was 0.02 of an inch in 1988.
Even a record rainfall wasn't enough to cause flash floods in the valley.
June is typically one of the driest months of the year, Morgan said.
But the normal annual rainfall of 4.49 inches has already been broken. Since Jan. 1 Las Vegas has had 5.12 inches of rain, according to the Weather Service.
Henderson picked up 0.28 of an inch of rain and South Anthem recorded 0.33 of an inch during a series of thunderstorms that moved southwest to northeast across the valley.
"It's great," said Charlie Swallow, who had just picked up his 4-year-old son, Bobby, from swimming practice.
"It's a bummer when you're stuck out in it, though," Swallow said, glancing up at the threatening clouds.
Former Brockton, Mass., resident Peg Ross said Wednesday's storminess was "small potatoes," compared to summer thunderstorms in New England.
"I have four umbrellas and have never opened any of them," said Ross, who moved to Las Vegas four years ago. She said she sometimes uses the longest one -- as a cane.
As for her stormy Wednesday, "I unplugged my computer and enjoyed it," Ross said.
She marveled at how curious Las Vegas residents are when it rains.
"It's like a parade, everybody rushes to the windows," Ross said.
For some Southern California girls in Las Vegas to play in a middle school basketball tournament, the thunderstorms brought a mixed reaction.
"I slept through it," 13-year-old Alex Evans, whose team is from the Los Angeles area, said.
"I didn't," teammate Brenna Jacobs, 12, said. The thunder early Wednesday morning woke her up. "I hope it's quiet tonight so we can get some sleep."
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