Storms still possible tonight for Las Vegas Valley

By Dave Toplikar (contact)

Published Wednesday, July 22, 2009 | 5:40 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, July 22, 2009 | 6:42 p.m.

Steve Marcus

Lightning strikes over a ridge as a storm passes though Death Valley National Park in California just after sunset July 21, 2009.

Steve Marcus

Lightning strikes over a ridge as a storm passes though Death Valley National Park in California just after sunset July 21, 2009.

(Editor's Note: See Thursday's latest weather story.)

Thunderstorms over eastern Arizona have been bringing strong winds this evening to much of the Lake Mead National Recreation area, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service said the gusty winds from the east will last through 8 p.m. and boaters should head for safe harbor and remain there until the wind subsides.

Although the Las Vegas Valley didn't have any thunderstorms or showers today, forecasters say there's still a 20 percent chance for isolated or scattered thunderstorms before 11 tonight.

Tonight's skies will be partly cloudy, with the low dropping to 85 degrees.

The temperature climbed to a high of 107 degrees today at McCarran International Airport. The normal high is 105 degrees and the record for this date is 114 degrees, set in 1937.

More chances of showers and thunderstorms are in the works Thursday through Sunday, with hot temperatures about normal or a little below normal, the weather service said.

Forecasters said an increasingly moist southeast flow Thursday and Friday might raise the potential for heavy rains and flash flooding from thunderstorms going into the weekend.

Death Valley gets high heat

The weather service said an impressive stretch of very hot weather has seared Death Valley recently.

From July 16 through July 20, the high in Death Valley reached 125 degrees or higher each day. That stretch of days is the third longest run of consecutive days with a high temperature of 125 or higher ever recorded there, the weather service said.

A stretch of five consecutive days of 125 degrees or more was also recorded from June 26 through June 20 in 1994, according to weather service records.

The second-longest stretch of days reaching 125 degrees or higher was from July 14 to July 20 in 2005, the weather service said. The all-time record was 10 days, from July 5 to July 14, in 1913.

The all-time hottest temperature in Death Valley is 134 degrees, recorded July 10, 1913.