Wind, rain take over the Las Vegas Valley

By TOM RAGAN and ANNALISE PORTER LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

10 years ago

Vehicles drive through the wet intersection of Decatur Boulevard and Washington Avenue in Las Vegas Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. (John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Girls shield themselves from the rain while walking along Decatur Blvd. near Western High School Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, in Las Vegas. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

A Nevada Highway Patrol officer walks by a van that slid off the road and knocked down a light pole on a ramp between Summerlin Parkway and the Las Vegas Beltway on Friday. Streets around the Las Vegas Valley are slick with today’s rain. (John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Attorney David Kahn holds papers over his head to shield himself from the rain while walking to the Regional Justice Center on Friday. Rain is expected all day throughout Southern Nevada. Snow is expected above 9,000 feet in the Spring Mountains. (John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

A man walks with an umbrella down California Street in San Francisco, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. The storm is expected to move down the coast, dumping a half-inch to an inch in southern areas late in the day, forecasters said. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A tow truck pulls a vehicle off of a median on Town Center Drive in Las Vegas Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. The car skidded into a tree on the median because of slick roads. (John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Attorney David Kahn holds papers over his head to shield himself from the rain while walking to the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. (John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

People walk in the rain along The Strip near The Palazzo hotel-casino Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, in Las Vegas. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Vehicles drive through the wet intersection of Decatur Boulevard and Washington Avenue in Las Vegas Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. (John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Runoff from the Spring Mountains creates a temporary waterfall in a previously flood damaged drainage next to Grand Teton Drive during an all day rain storm in Las Vegas on Feb. 28, 2014. (Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Runoff from the Spring Mountains flows through a previously flood damaged drainage next to Grand Teton Drive during an all day rain storm in Las Vegas on Feb. 28, 2014. (Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Sandbags await a potential flood near the intersection of Grand Teton and Grand Canyon Drive during an all day rain storm in Las Vegas on Feb. 28, 2014. (Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Sandbags await a potential flood at the intersection of Grand Teton and Grand Canyon Drive during an all day rain storm in Las Vegas on Feb. 28, 2014. (Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Overnight snowfall is washed away by heavy rains in Kyle Canyon on Mount Charleston north of Las Vegas on Feb. 28, 2014. (Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Heavy rains gather and damage Bristlecone Pine Drive in the Rainbow subdivision in Kyle Canyon during an all day rain storm up on Mount Charleston on Feb. 28, 2014. (Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

That spate of hot and sunny weather last week, which felt more like Easter than actual winter?

It’s gone, ended by those 30-mph-winds that blew into the Las Vegas Valley, darkening the skies like the Pacific Northwest on Friday and unleashing a quarter inch of rain.

Saturday’s forecast isn’t expected to be as wet, but a slight shower is expected and the skies will be dark, just not as dark, said Ryan Metzger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.

“The rain is going to be hit and miss on Saturday,” Metzger said of Saturday’s forecast. “It definitely won’t be as steady and concentrated as it was on Friday.”

That downpour, which occurred in the middle of the afternoon, brought motorists to a crawl on many of the highways around Las Vegas, but the good news is no mud slides were reported on Mount Charleston in the vicinity of last year’s Carpenter 1 fire.

And that’s a good thing, considering nearly two inches fell up on the mountain, not exactly an ideal situation for an area already susceptible to erosion, Metzger said.

And as it turns out Friday’s quarter-inch rainfall wasn’t that out of the ordinary for this time of year, Metzger said.

All told and tallied, the accumulation still fell woefully short of the record rainfall for Feb. 28: a half-inch of rain back in 2001 since records have been kept since 1937.

As for the temperatures, they are expected to be in the mid-60s until Tuesday, when temperatures in the 70s are expected.

Contact reporter Annalise Porter at aporter@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0391. Contact reporter Tom Ragan at tragan@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.