Slightly cooler, somewhat windy for Las Vegas

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011 | 5:26 a.m.

Drier skies and slightly cooler temperatures will return to Las Vegas today, according to the National Weather Service.

High pressure will move off to the east and be replaced by a Pacific trough through Thursday, resulting in dry condition across the area with slightly cooler temperatures and increasing winds, the weather service said.

Today’s afternoon highs will range from around 99 degrees on the west side of the valley to around 110 on the east side, forecasters said. Winds are expected to be from the south and gust up to 30 mph in the afternoon, they said.

High pressure will then rebuild over the west for the weekend, maintaining above-normal temperatures and bringing a slight chance of thunderstorms back into northwest Arizona and the eastern Mojave Desert by Sunday, they said.

At 4:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 89 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 77 degrees. The record low was 55 degrees, set in 1947.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 83 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 79 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 84 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures at McCarran were to rise today to 94 degrees by 9 a.m., to 102 degrees by noon and reach a high of 107 degrees by 3 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 100 degrees and the record high was 112 degrees, set in 1948.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 106 degrees by 6 p.m., to 98 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 91 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Wednesday's morning low will be 81 degrees and Wednesday's high will climb to 104 degrees, they said.