Skies still smoky, but slight chance for rain comes to Las Vegas

Steve Marcus

Smoke from California wildfires obscures the Las Vegas skyline in this photo taken from Henderson Monday, Aug. 31, 2009.

By Dave Toplikar (contact)

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009 | 5:58 a.m.

The Las Vegas Valley can expect smoky skies and a slight chance for rain today thanks to two weather makers — the Station wildfire in southern California and Hurricane Jimena an the west coast of Mexico.

Southwest winds are carrying the smoke long distances and causing poor air quality and reduced visibility, according to the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Jimena is continuing to move northward toward the Mexican Baja coast and will increase the moisture across the region over the next week, the weather service said. The moisture is being pulled north by a high pressure area centered over the Four Corners region of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, forecasters said.

The Las Vegas Valley will have a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms today primarily southeast of Interstate 15, the weather service said.

Some of the storms could bring gusty winds, forecasters said.

The weather service said a more significant surge of moisture is possible Wednesday or Thursday as Hurricane Jimena moves north up the Baja Penninsula.

If that moisture surge does occur, thunderstorms with flash flooding could threaten the area, the weather service said.

But a shift to drier weather is possible as early as the weekend, forecasters said.

Today's forecst calls for partly sunny skies and a high reaching near 104 degrees.

The normal high temperature for today's date is 99 degrees and the record is 113, set in 1950. Monday's high was 103, which was 4 degrees higher than normal. The record for that date was 112, set in 1948.