Mostly sunny today for Las Vegas

By Dave Toplikar (contact)

Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 | 7:06 a.m.

If you've got some pre-Thanksgiving chores to take care of this weekend, the weather will cooperate - mostly sunny skies with highs in the upper 60s are in store for Las Vegas, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service said the region will be under a dry northwest flow through Monday, which will bring some high clouds from time to time and some locally gusty north winds today.

A weak cold front was to pass through the Las Vegas Valley around 10 a.m. today. Behind the front, the gusty 14 mph winds coming from the south-southwest will swing around and come in from the northwest at about 10 mph, forecasters said.

The weather service said today's morning temperatures are warmer than normal because the atmosphere was stirred up by strong winds overnight from the south, which were gusting as high as 26 mph.

This morning's low temperature at McCarran International Airport was 54 degrees at 5:56 a.m., or about 12 degrees warmer than the normal low for today's date of 42 degrees. The record low for today's date is 24 degrees, set in 1945.

Temperatures will rise to 61 degrees by 10 a.m., to 65 degrees by noon and top out at 68 degrees around 2 p.m., forecasters said.

Tonight, temperatures will fall to 60 degrees by 6 p.m., to 53 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 49 degrees by midnight, the weather service said.

Sunday's morning low will be 44 degrees around 6 a.m. Temperatures will climb Sunday to a high of 59 degrees by 3 p.m., forecasters said.