Hot, dry and windy for Las Vegas Valley

By Dave Toplikar

Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011 | 5:31 a.m.

The extreme and dangerous heat is gone. But sunny and above-normal hot temperatures are in the forecast for the last day of August in Las Vegas, according to the National Weather Service.

Afternoon highs will be around 97 degrees on the west side of the Las Vegas Valley and around 108 degrees on the east side, the weather service said.

South winds will be around 10 mph, increasing to southwest up to around 25 mph in the afternoon and gusting around 30 mph in the evening, forecasters said.

A dry southwest flow will be over the area through Thursday as a low pressure system traverses the Pacific northwest, forecasters said.

That will creat generally clear skies, with slightly cooler temperatures and breezy conditions throughout the region, they said.

High pressure will then rebuild over the southwest for the weekend, maintaining above-normal temperatures and bringing a slight chance of thunderstorms back into northwest Arizona and the eastern Mohave Desert Sunday through early next week.

At 4:56 a.m. today, the temperature at McCarran International Airport was 87 degrees. The normal low for today's date is 77 degrees. The record low was 55 degrees, set in 1942.

Around the valley just before 5 a.m., temperatures were 82 degrees at North Las Vegas Airport, 81 degrees at Nellis Air Force Base and 79 degrees at Henderson Executive Airport.

Temperatures at McCarran are to rise today to 91 degrees by 9 a.m., to 100 degrees by noon and reach a high of 104 degrees by 2 p.m., forecasters said. The normal high for today's date is 99 degrees and the record high was 112 degrees, set in 1948.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 102 degrees by 7 p.m., to 96 degrees by 9 p.m. and to 90 degrees by midnight, forecasters said.

Thursday's morning low will be 80 degrees and Thursday's high will climb to 104 degrees, they said.