Las Vegas heat wave nearly over

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, June 8, 2010 | 5:36 a.m.

The heat wave that hit Las Vegas during the last few days is starting to wane. Temperatures will climb into the low 100s this afternoon, but not high enough to trigger an excessive heat warning, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service said the high pressure that turned the burners up in southern Nevada will begin to shift east today as an area of low pressure moves into the Pacific northwest coast.

Afternoon temperatures today and Wednesday will be a few degrees cooler than Monday, when the temperature hit 106 at McCarran International Airport, forecasters said. Sunday's high peaked at 110 degrees, a new record for that date at McCarran.

By Thursday afternoon, high temperatures will be in the upper 90s, which is close to or slightly below seasonal averages for this time of year, they said.

The next storm system will move into the area starting on Friday, dropping afternoon high temperatures to the upper 80s Friday and to the mid 80s on Saturday in the Las Vegas Valley, they said.

A slight chance of snow showers is possible in Mount Charleston Saturday and Saturday night, where the high will be 44 degrees and the low will drop to 32 degrees, they said.

At 5:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 83 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 70 degrees. The record low was 52 degrees, set in 1995, 1964 and 1939.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 81 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 83 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 81 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 91 degrees by 9 a.m., to 98 degrees by noon and reach a high of 104 degrees by 4 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 97 degrees and the record high was 111 degrees, set in 1955.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 102 degrees by 6 p.m., to 95 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 89 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Wednesday's morning low will be 79 degrees and Wednesday's high will climb to 101 degrees, they said.