Las Vegas to stay dry over weekend

By Dave Toplikar (contact)

Saturday, July 31, 2010 | 6:41 a.m.

Mostly sunny skies and near normal hot temperatures will toast Las Vegas this weekend.

However, thunderstorms with the potential for heavy rain will move in over northwest Arizona and just west of the Colorado River Valley through the weekend and into early next week, according to the National Weather Service.

A drier and more stable air mass will remain over most of southern Nevada and southeast California, the weather service said.

Partly cloudy skies are expected this morning in the Las Vegas area and there's a slight chance that a thunderstorm could develop this afternoon over the Spring Moutains or the Sheep Range, forecasters said.

The most thunderstorm activity will be over northern Mohave and eastern Lincoln counties through the afternoon and evening, forecasters said.

Isolated storms will occur across Clark County and southern San Bernardino County, they said.

At 5:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 89 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 79 degrees. The record low was 64 degrees, set in 1940.

Around the valley just before 6 a.m., temperatures were 87 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 89 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 88 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 92 degrees by 9 a.m., to 99 degrees by noon and reach a high of 104 degrees by 4 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 104 degrees and the record high was 115 degrees, set in 1978, 1977 and 1938.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 103 degrees by 6 p.m., to 97 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 93 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Sunday's morning low will be 86 degrees and Sunday's high will climb to 104 degrees, they said.