Temperature to hit 101 in Las Vegas

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 | 5:33 a.m.

After three days of relatively cool and sometimes stormy weather, clearer skies and triple-digit temperatures return today to the Las Vegas Valley.

And by Friday, excessive heat close to 110 degrees might come to the valley again as temperatures rise to near-record levels, according to the National Weather Service.

While the valley's skies will be sunny today, some isolated thunderstorms are possible to the east and north, over the higher terrain of Mohave County in Arizona and far northwestern Lincoln County in Nevada, forecasters said.

Temperatures in the valley were starting out in the upper 70s this morning, just before dawn. But by late afternoon the thermometer readings will hit a high of 101, the weather service said.

That's just a little above the normal high for today's date of 100 degrees, according to weather service records. The record high for today's date was 110 degrees, set in 1985.

The forecast calls for tonight's skies to be mostly clear with a low around 78 degrees.

High afternoon temperatures this week will be a several degrees above normal: 103 degrees on Wednesday, 106 on Thursday and 108 on Friday, the weather service said.