Storms bring humidity to valley

After another day of high humidity and heavy rain in parts of the Spring Mountains, Las Vegans wake up this morning with another chance to squeeze water out of the air.

"It is going to be another hot, muggy day in Clark County, Southern Nevada and Mohave County" in Arizona, National Weather Service meteorologist Jerome Jacques said.

"There’s going to be a better chance of seeing thunderstorms in Southern Nevada."

Not much rain developed from Wednesday’s storm despite an afternoon and evening of flash flood watches and even a flash flood warning for Clark County. In the early afternoon, the Mount Charleston fire station reported 3 inches of water over a few roadways. And heavy rain was reported on the west side of the mountains in Nye County.

But the monsoonal weather pattern did bring higher than usual humidity. Relative humidity peaked at 8 a.m. Wednesday at 65 percent, but as temperatures heated up to 97 degrees, humidity dropped to 25 percent, Jacques said.

"It looks like this monsoon moisture that came up on Saturday is going to be hanging around through the weekend," Jacques said.

According to forecasters, the hazardous weather outlook for the next seven days calls for the chance of thunderstorms today and Friday with heavy rainfall a concern.

Today ‘s forecast for Las Vegas calls for a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms with a high temperature around 100 degrees, and a low tonight around 88. Skies will be mostly cloudy with wind out the southwest at between 7 and 13 mph.

Friday will bring a slight chance of thunderstorms with a high of 103 and a low Friday night of 89 degrees with southwest winds of between 5 and 15 mph and gusts up to 22 mph.

Wednesday’s flash flood watch came on the heels of a massive desert thunderstorm complex that roared across the Mojave Desert on Tuesday, flooding low areas of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area west of Las Vegas and stranding several motorists on nearby Bonnie Springs Road after a wash flooded, covering the road with water and mud.

Lightning from the thunderstorms sparked two wildfires in remote areas at the Nevada National Security Site, formerly the Nevada Test Site, more than 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

By 5 p.m. Wednesday, the fires had burned more than 7,000 acres, but no structures were threatened. Firefighting resources were focused on the Timber Fire in areas 18 and 30 of the 1,360-square-mile test site, according to National Nuclear Security Administration officials in North Las Vegas.

The Timber Fire itself charred about 6,000 acres, said Dante Pistone, a spokesman at the site’s emergency operations center.

The Weston Fire, which is south of the Timber Fire, "has minor hot spots, is not advancing and containment lines are being placed around the burned areas," test site officials said in a news release.

"It’s pretty much in mop-up mode," Pistone said.

Meteorologists for the National Weather Service also issued several flood watches and advisories Wednesday in Northern Nevada for a number of mountain streams and swollen rivers stretching from the Sierra to Elko County.

In Elko County, Lamoille Creek has moved above flood stage and is expected to continue to rise until late tonight. The Humboldt River also continues to flow above flood stage, which could affect lowlands in Winnemucca.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.