Christmas weekend begins with rain, snow (and a kiss) in Las Vegas

Mother Nature delivered obstacles on a major travel day Friday, a long weekend leading to Christmas.

Showers made roads slick across the Las Vegas Valley most of the day, while snow was sticking on Mount Charleston roads.

Rain gauges on the north end of the valley showed from .08 on an inch to a high of .31 of an inch at the base of the Sheep Range as of 5 p.m. from rainfall that began around 9 a.m. Spotty rain fell much of the afternoon in several parts of the valley.

Slick roads surfaces slowed traffic on several major valley roadways during the noon hour, especially Interstate 15 southbound and St. Rose Parkway in both directions from I-15 to the 215 Beltway on the east side.

I-15 mostly moving well

I-15 traffic coming from Southern California to Southern Nevada moved steady at 65-75 mph, according to sigalert.com.

Flood watches had been issued for most of Southern California all the way east to Phoenix as major parts of the storm went south of Las Vegas.

Heavy SoCal rain Thursday

The storm is a cut-off cold front that dropped 3.18 inches of rain Thursday in downtown Oxnard, Calif., on Thursday. Several residents suffered flooding, evacuations and people needing to be rescue from stranded vehicles.

Clearing Saturday

Saturday is forecast to be clear with a morning low near 47 before rising to near 66. Sunday will be sunny with a high near 58. Northeast winds around 6 mph are forecast

Christmas Day will be identical, says the weather service. Temperatures will warm back into the low 60s early next week.

Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com.