High winds to create fire, driving hazards for Las Vegas

By Dave Toplikar

Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 | 6:27 a.m.

Strong winds and low humidity are coming to the Las Vegas area today, leading to the danger of wildfires and possible driving hazards, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service has issued a wind advisory and a red flag fire warning beginning this morning until 9 tonight for southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southeast California.

Strong winds will develop ahead of an abnormally strong area of low pressure that will move across northern California today, the weather service said.

South to southwest winds of 20 to 35 mph and wind gusts from 45 to more than 50 mph should be expected, the weather service said.

The winds may lift dust and sand and temporarily reduce visibility, forecasters said.

Motorists, especially those driving tall vehicles that can easily catch the wind, should use extra caution, they said.

The high wind and relative humidity below 15 percent will create an extremely critical condition for fires to start and spread, the weather service said.

Today's high temperature of 102 degrees also adds to the fire danger, the weather service said. The normal high for today is 103 degrees and the record for this date is 114, set in 1978.

Tonight's skies will be mostly clear and winds will be between 16 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph, forecasters said.

Temperatures will cool off to a high of 91 degrees on Friday and 96 degrees on Saturday. But high temperatures in the triple digits will return Sunday and Monday.