Snow still in mountains, gone from Las Vegas Valley
Snow in the Las Vegas Valley was just a memory Tuesday, but the mountains still showed some remains of the previous day’s winter storm.
Snowman-building and impromptu sledding was fun in Summerlin for several hours Monday with about 1 to 1.5 inches of accumulated snow, according to the National Weather Service. Most of it melted Monday.
Road crews prepared for the worst, Tony Illia, of the Nevada Department of Transportation, said Tuesday.
“It turned out far better than we anticipated,” he said.
Every winter, NDOT puts snow plows and deicer salt on standby “just in case” roads need them, Illia said. Freezing conditions were monitored overnight Monday but did not warrant the use of plows or salt.
No road damage was reported on valley roads, according to NDOT.
The 13-mile scene loop at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area reopened after is was closed Tuesday morning for snow. Three snowed-in hikers were rescued from there Monday.
NDOT required snow chains on a portion of state Route 160, which connects Las Vegas to Pahrump until about 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Crews from the Mountain Springs Fire Station, 50 miles west of Las Vegas on state Route 160, reported about 10 inches of snow, meteorologist Andrew Gorelow said.
Mount Potosi, in the Spring Mountains, got about a foot of snow Monday. Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort received 10 inches, according to the weather service.
Onlookers from the valley on Tuesday were only able to see surrounding mountains still blanketed in white.
Outside the Las Vegas valley, 20 hikers from Northern Arizona University got stranded Monday after a storm blanketed the Grand Canyon with two feet of snow near the north rim. Crews rescued them Tuesday.
Another weather system heading toward Las Vegas is expected to bring more snow to the mountains later this week, but it won’t be as big as Monday’s storm, Gorelow said. It will only bring rain to the valley.
High temperatures through the week are expected to be in the mid 60s, the weather service said.
Contact Ricardo Torres at rtorres@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @rickytwrites. Reporter Kimberly De La Cruz contributed to this report.
