Weekend to bring upper 80s to Las Vegas Valley

By Dave Toplikar

Friday, April 15, 2011 | 6:08 a.m.

You won't need a jacket this afternoon — mostly sunny skies and temperatures climbing to 80 degrees are heading to the Las Vegas Valley.

Even warmer weather is moving in for the weekend, with highs climbing into the upper 80s both Saturday and Sunday in the valley, according to the National Weather Service.

However, a few showers or thunderstorms could be seen over the central Nevada mountains through the weekend, the weather service said.

A stronger storm will move into the southern Great Basin by Monday, bringing a chance of showers to the area, with temperatures then cooling into the middle of next week, forecasters said.

At 5:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 52 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 54 degrees. The record low was 34 degrees, set in 1939.

Around the valley just before 6 a.m., temperatures were 50 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 48 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 45 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures in the valley were to rise today to 61 degrees by 9 a.m., to 73 degrees by noon and reach a high of 80 degrees by 4 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 78 degrees and the record high was 97 degrees, set in 1947.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 79 degrees by 6 p.m., to 73 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 68 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Saturday's morning low will be 63 degrees and Saturday's high will climb to 87 degrees, they said.