Snowy Nevada weather to be followed by hard freeze

Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007 | 2:19 a.m.

Temperatures were expected to hover around zero early Saturday across snowy northern Nevada while forecasters were calling for near-freezing temperatures as far south as the Las Vegas Strip.

Chains or snow tires still were required in parts of northern Nevada, particularly in the eastern sections, but it was the cold that was beginning to be the weather news.

Temperatures never even approached freezing across the northern two-thirds of the state on Friday and were expected to be followed by lows of zero - or below - complicated by gusty winds out of the north.

Even Las Vegas felt the chill with a low of 35 on Friday that was expected to be well below freezing at daybreak Saturday.

An afternoon snow advisory in southern Nevada was canceled, although a dusting of snow was possible overnight at higher altitudes around the Las Vegas valley.

"It's going to stay cold for the next two to three days," said meteorologist Jim Wallmann with the National Weather Service in Reno. "Looking at the temperatures, we are about 15 to 20 degrees below normal for this time of year."

Wallman said the last time Reno saw a reading below zero was minus 3 two days before Christmas 1998. The coldest readings since were 2 above the day after New Year in 2002 and 4 above Nov. 4, 2004.

The cold was ushered in by a disturbance sweeping south from the Bering Strait that caused a traffic nightmare south of Reno.

The city itself received just enough snow to coat roads with ice. To the south, Carson City received about 3 inches while 4 inches fell in the hilly stretch of U.S. 395 from Topaz Lake to Gardnerville.

Police in Nevada and California reported relatively few traffic problems Thursday but braced for the potentially dangerous combination of slick, icy roads and busy traffic associated with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

"We're just kind of getting ready to go here," officer Steve Skeen of the California Highway Patrol's Truckee office said.

Little improvement was expected through Monday's holiday, with a slight temperature going into next week.