Despite chance of storms, dangerously high heat still baking Las Vegas

By Dave Toplikar

Friday, Aug. 26, 2011 | 6:14 a.m.

Don't let the clouds and a slight chance of rain fool you — an excessive heat warning is still in effect for the Las Vegas area through tonight, says the National Weather Service.

Highs are expected to range from 102 degrees on the west side of the Las Vegas Valley to 111 on the east side, the weather service said.

The excessive heat warning continues until 8 p.m. for areas below 4,000 feet in elevation, forecasters said.

Record highs are expected in some areas of the region today as a strong area of high pressure remains over the Four Corners Region through tonight, the weather service said.

Temperatures are expected to reach between 113 and 116 at Lake Mead and Laughlin, 118 to 120 in Death Valley, 108 to 110 at Barstow and Twentynine Palms, around 115 at Lake Havasu City and 102 to 104 in Kingman.

Increasing monsoonal moisture will lead to isolated thunderstorms this afternoon and evening, especially over the mountains, forecasters said. The primary hazard will be localized wind gusts over 50 mph, they said.

The weather service says there is a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. today.

The clouds moving in are bringing in a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms through the weekend to Las Vegas, forecasters said. High temperatures are expected to reach 107 Saturday and Sunday at McCarran International Airport.

Las Vegas set a high temperature record for the third day in a row on Thursday. The afternoon high reached 111 degrees at 2:20 p.m. Thursday at McCarran International Airport, the official weather recording spot for Las Vegas. The previous record for that date was 110 degrees, set in 1985.

At 5:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 84 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 78 degrees. The record low was 55 degrees, set in 1943.

Around the valley just before 6 a.m., temperatures were 86 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 90 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 84 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures at McCarran were to rise today to 95 degrees by 9 a.m., to 103 degrees by noon and reach a high of 108 degrees by 3 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 101 degrees and the record high was 109 degrees, set in 2001 and 1944.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 107 degrees by 6 p.m., to 101 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 95 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Saturday's morning low will be 86 degrees and Saturday's high will climb to 107 degrees, they said.