Mojave Max, Nevada's most famous desert tortoise, roams the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in September 2009. (Las Vegas Review-Journal File)
By Henry Brean
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
After years of taking in people's unwanted pets, the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center at the valley's southwestern edge is desperately trying to get out of the shelter business.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials announced Tuesday that the federal facility has discontinued its pickup service for pets and strays, which literally gobbles up resources meant for research and recovery work.
Instead, the center is teaming up with the Animal Foundation to develop a new tortoise drop-off and adoption program through the foundation-operated Lied Animal Shelter.
The Fish and Wildlife Service simply doesn't have the funds to take in and care for more than 1,000 unwanted tortoises a year, said Ted Koch, who heads up the agency in Nevada.
"We aren't picking them up anymore, and we do not want to take them in anymore," Koch said. "We cannot take them in anymore."
Lied Animal Shelter was already accepting desert tortoises as part of its mission to take in "anything anyone brings to us that's an animal," said Betsy VanDeusen, development manager for the Animal Foundation.
Clark County's largest animal shelter would serve as the main drop-off point for unwanted tortoises that would otherwise end up at the conservation center.
That's the goal anyway.
Koch acknowledged the change could result in more pet tortoises being dumped into the open desert by their owners, even though doing so is "illegal, unwise ecologically and cruel."
"Unless you do it at the right place at the right time, it's likely to end in an unpleasant death for the tortoise," he said.
The conservation center was established 20 years ago as a place for developers to put the federally protected animals after removing them from job sites.
The San Diego Zoo now manages the center under a 2009 partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies.
Koch said shelter work takes time and money away from the facility's core missions of research, education and the controlled release of tortoises into the wild, but there is another reason the community needs to transition away from using the center as a care home for unwanted animals. He said the conservation center only has funding for the next two years, and its future is unclear.
VanDeusen said the Animal Foundation is now developing an adoption program in consultation with the center. The details are still being worked out, but the idea is to let people adopt male tortoises only in an effort to curb backyard breeding.
The program should be up and running later this year, she said. Until then, Lied will take in as many tortoises as it can and turn the rest over to the conservation center.
No healthy tortoises will be euthanized by Lied or anyone else, at least not yet.
Koch said he can't rule that out down the road if funding continues to shrink and no solution can be found to "stem the flow of unwanted pet tortoises."
Some estimate there could be as many as 150,000 captive desert tortoises in the Las Vegas Valley alone. Koch couldn't vouch for that number, but he said there isn't much to stop their numbers from skyrocketing in a backyard setting with ample food, water and protection of predators.
Tortoises lay up to a dozen eggs at a time precisely because so many of the hatchlings don't survive in the wild. In captivity, the number of eggs is the same but the survival rate is far higher.
Koch knows it sounds strange for the agency charged with saving the desert tortoise to actively campaign against more breeding of the animal. But he said one of the fundamental purposes of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve the ecosystems on which species depend, "and raising individuals in captivity does not meet that purpose."
No other federally protected species is so widely kept as a pet, Koch said. "It's unique in the country."
In addition to the collaboration with Lied, the Fish and Wildlife Service is exploring a possible partnership with the Humane Society or other animal group to offer tortoises for adoption nationwide.
Ultimately, Koch said, the agency is open to any ideas that might help keep the state reptile of Nevada from stacking up at shelters while officials try to figure out how to preserve it in the wild.
University of Nevada students Ryan Klorman, left, and Markus Adams relax on inflatable pool toys in floodwater in a parking lot at UNLV in Las Vegas on Tuesday. (John Locher / Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
By NBC News
wire services
Residents in four Southwest states were drying out Wednesday after thunderstorms flooded Las Vegas streets, stranded Navajo families in northern Arizona, left two mobile home communities in Southern California deep in water and caused a dike to fail in a Utah town.
In the Las Vegas area, the Tuesday storms delayed flights, snarled traffic and prompted helicopter rescues of stranded motorists. A golf course worker was reported missing and a search for the man resumed Wednesday, NBC affiliate KSNV-TV reported.
Television news video showed school buses inching along roads after school east of downtown Las Vegas, and muddy water up to the lower sills of windows of stucco homes in other neighborhoods.
In southeast Las Vegas, authorities urged the residents of about 45 homes damaged by flooding to leave in case electrical fires are sparked.
Dozens of cars were swamped by water up to their headlights in a parking lot outside the Thomas & Mack sports arena at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Firefighters responded to more than 20 calls about people in stalled cars .
A Las Vegas police helicopter was dispatched during the height of the storm to pluck several people from swamped vehicles on roadways.
More than 1.75 inches of rain were reported in downtown Las Vegas. The rainfall amounts put the region on pace to exceed the 4.5 inches of rain it normally gets in a year.
Tuesday was also the wettest September day on record in Las Vegas, weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen reported.
Calif. mobile home parks hit hard
In California's Coachella Valley, a thunderstorm on Tuesday dropped more than the average annual rainfall there in one night alone, settling for six to eight hours over Mecca and Thermal, desert towns 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
In Thermal, the downpour flooded the Desert Mobile Home Park better known as Duroville, a community of mostly migrant workers with about 1,500 people, including 900 children, that has long been the subject of legal fights as Riverside County officials attempt to relocate residents.
More than a foot of water stood in the southern end of the park, knocking out power to about 800 people for much of the day.
"None of us had ever been through anything like this," said Tom Flynn, the court-appointed receiver for Duroville. "That much water in a dilapidated mobile home park was something to see."
The lack of power knocked out electric motors on both of the park's wells, leaving no fresh water until one was revived and county workers brought several tons of bottled water.
The park has no paved streets or drainage, and health officials were concerned about overflow from two ponds that serve as the community's sewers.
Between 60 and 80 people had evacuated from the park and were spending the night at a high school. "The poorest of the poor were hit the hardest," Flynn said.
St. Anthony's Mobile Home Park in Mecca also was affected, but fared better than Duroville. Video clips showed residents wading through knee-high water and cars creeping through flooded residential streets.
The storm dropped 5.51 inches of rain near Mecca and 3.23 inches of rain near Thermal, meteorologist Mark Moede said. The average annual rainfall in arid Thermal is just shy of 3 inches, he said.
"That's an amazing amount of rain," Moede said. "It's unusual anywhere to get a storm that sits stationary for five to eight hours."
Arizona and Utah flooding
On the Navajo Nation reservation in northeastern Arizona, many of Tuba City's roads were underwater and residents stuck in their homes. State Route 264, one of two main arteries in and out of town, was closed after a bridge washed out about a mile outside of the community, Tuba City Chapter Manager Benjamin Davis said.
Flooding was reported in some homes but no residents were displaced, Davis said.
Meanwhile, a dike that broke during heavy morning rain flooded nearly four square blocks in the southern Utah city of Santa Clara. More than 30 homes and business were evacuated after the break.
City Manager Edward Dickie said the dike along a retention pond sent a deluge of water into downtown.
"It didn't just breach. It broke. It's gone," he said, adding that the flooding quickly receded as water drained into rivers and creeks.
Such a wide area across the Southwest was hit, Wiltgen told NBCNews.com, because moist, unstable air interacted with a disturbance in the upper atmosphere.
"The disturbance helped to trigger the scattered thunderstorms that popped up across a broad swath of the Southwest," he said, "and these storms translated that very moist air into flooding downpours."
Colorado River, Lake Mead recover; Calif., Ariz., Nev. keep rationing at bay
Las Vegas gets nearly 90 percent of its drinking water from Lake Mead, which had been shrinking over the last decade.
By CRISTINA SILVA
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS -- Communities below the snow-capped mountains of the West are bracing against the swelling rivers and flooding that come with the spring thaw. In the drought-ravaged cities of the Southwest, however, the deluge is cause for celebration.
There will be more water for Nevada, California and Arizona this year, sparing them from having to take emergency measures, such as water rationing, for at least another three years.
The three states can thank the heavy and, in some cases, unprecedented snowpack in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. The ripe June sun is sending snowmelt into the Colorado River, its tributaries and Lake Mead, the nation's largest reservoir located outside Las Vegas.
"This is obviously really welcome, great news," said Jeffrey Kightlinger, CEO of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves 19 million people. "It's been a godsend."
The water comes at a crucial time for the Southwest. After 10 years of receding water levels that threatened a regional water shortage, this year's melting snows are expected to grow Lake Mead, the chief source of water for the three states and Mexico, by 40 feet or more.
The jubilation in California, Arizona and Nevada is not a case of wishing neighbors ill, only the reality of nature's polarizing impact in the water-poor West. Brutal, prolonged winters in the north produce robust, life-giving water flows in the south.
That cycle had been disrupted for more than a decade as one dry winter after another emptied Lake Mead, which sits on the Nevada-Arizona border and was formed in 1935 after the construction of Hoover Dam. Mead and Lake Powell upstream are the major water storage facilities in the system.
Roughly 96 percent of Mead's water comes from melted snow in the upper Colorado River basin states: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.
By November 2010, the water in the reservoir had fallen to 1,081 elevation feet, a historic low and a mere six feet above the point that would trigger a large reduction of Arizona and Nevada's share of the Colorado River.
If that trend had continued, Arizona and Nevada could have had to begin water rationing this year.
That outlook changed during late winter as snowstorms blanketed Western mountains from the Rockies to the Sierra Nevada.
By June, there was more cumulative snow than ever recorded in the upper basin states that feed into the Colorado River, said Kevin Werner, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service's Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.
As a result, Lake Mead is expected to grow to up to 1,126 feet by December. At full stage, the lake registers at more than 1,200 elevation feet.
For public water utilities, the engorged river will buy officials more time to plan for the possibility of a future without Lake Mead, a nightmarish prospect across the Southwest. Some researchers believe long-term drought, climate change and an ever increasing demand for water could leave the lake dry by 2021.
In California, water leaders are promoting conservation programs and exploring other water sources.
In Nevada, Las Vegas gets nearly 90 percent of its drinking water from the lake. Officials are seeking a permit to build a 285-mile-long pipeline project to import water from aquifers in northern Nevada and Utah. The project has encountered stiff opposition from conservationists and rural leaders against tapping northern groundwater to fuel more growth in southern Nevada.
Meanwhile, construction problems have stalled a $700-million effort to build a new pipe into Mead.
The huge snowmelt has somewhat eased some of the pressure driving both projects, said Scott Huntley, spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "This is the first significant elevation in 10 years," he said. "It provides us a greater cushion to fall back on."
The good news has spread quickly.
In rural Arizona, the new water means farmers won't have to reduce agricultural acreage.
"It means we've dodged a bullet," said Kevin Rogers, president of the Arizona Farm Bureau, the state's farming lobby. "That water is the lifeblood of the West."
At the Lake Mead National Recreation Area bordering Hoover Dam, park officials are preparing for new visitors and urging concessionaires to move their marinas, floating restaurants and boat rental stands to accommodate the transforming shore.
"Water has already started to rise a foot a week," said park spokesman Andrew Munoz. "We are looking at three good years of access to the water."
The National Park Service also is looking forward to replenishing its purse. Every 20-foot drop of water during the past decade has cost the agency roughly $6 million in renovations as roads and utilities were extended to match the receding shoreline.
"That's hundreds of thousands of dollars that they won't have to spend this year," Munoz said.
Gail Kaiser's family owns the Las Vegas Boat Harbor and Lake Mead Marina outside Las Vegas. For more than 10 years, the family has repeatedly released its anchors and moved the marinas to stay attached to the receding shoreline.
This year, however, they expect to move the marinas up at least five times through August to keep pace with the rising water.
"It is always a good thing to have more water," she said. "People go, 'Wow, they are getting water there. Let's go out and see what the lake is doing.'"
Boaters forced to confront muddy beaches and newly uncovered islands as they toured Lake Mead in recent years are also watching the rising water with delight.
Rick Brodeen has been boating on Lake Mead since 1972. His friends crashed into unmarked islands as the lake began to empty. The beaches became less popular for day trippers as more and more rocks emerged. It was dangerous and depressing, Brodeen said.
"I've been watching this water go down for years," he said. "To have the water going up is a lot better."
Snow blankets the Red Rock Canyon National Park 15 miles west of Las Vegas.
School district calls off classes for first time in 30 years, flights canceled
By Sun Staff Las Vegas Sun
A rare snowstorm blanketed the Las Vegas Valley on Wednesday, delaying flights, causing widespread fender-benders and canceling events. As much as 8 inches of snow fell in parts of the valley, forecasters said this morning.
The rarities continued Wednesday night with the Clark County School District's announcement that students are getting a snow day today. It's the first snow day for Clark County students since 1979, when a storm dropped 9.9 inches of snow in January that year.
With ice and snow on the roads, and district buses responsible for transporting more than 80,000 students, closing school was the prudent move, Superintendent Walt Rulffes said.
Bus drivers, teachers and other classroom employees will also have the day off. Administrators, 12-month employees and office staff are expected to be at work, since some students might show up at school and require adult assistance, Rulffes explained in an e-mail to staff. In a statement this morning, the school district said all school-based food service personnel, food service truck drivers and warehouse employees are not to report for work. However, all other food service personnel shall report for work or contact their supervisor.
School Board President Mary Beth Scow said she planned to spend the day watching holiday movies and baking cookies with her grandchildren, who will have the day off from school. She said she didn't envy the teachers who will have a hard enough time keeping students' attention on Friday, the last day before the two-week winter break.
A makeup day might be scheduled later in the school year. Additional information on school closures will be posted on the district's Web site at ccsd.net.
The National Weather Service finally lifted a winter storm warning at 6 a.m. today. The weather service said its Las Vegas office had reported 3.6 inches of snow by 9:50 p.m. Wednesday. And there was a report of 8 inches measured in Henderson shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday.
The weather service said the main low pressure area was centered over northern Clark County at 3:30 a.m. today and was moving slowly east.
Heavy snow had already fallen over much of the warning area and another 2 to 4 inches would be possible above the 2,500-foot level elevations through early morning, the weather service said.
The weather service this morning urged travelers to take with them warm clothing, an extra flashlight, food and water in their vehicles in case of an emergency and to be alert for slippery spots on roads.
The warning area included Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City. An advisory from the weather service Wednesday afternoon called the snow event "extremely rare."
The 3.6 inches of snow through late Wednesday at the weather service office two miles southwest of McCarran International Airport set a record for the most snow ever in the month of December in Las Vegas since the beginning of official records in 1937, the weather service said. The office is the official recording station for weather in the Las Vegas Valley.
Measurable snow has only fallen on four other occasions since 1937 in December, the weather service said: 2 inches on Dec. 15, 1967; 0.4 inches on Dec. 5, 1972; 1 inch on Dec. 6, 1998; and 1.3 inches on Dec. 30, 2003.
Not all areas of the Las Vegas Valley had snow accumulations because a mix of rain and snow fell much of the time. Also, warm ground temperatures kept the snow from sticking in some areas, the weather service said.
Downtown Las Vegas and the northern parts of the Strip saw snow, but little to no accumulation, the weather service said.
However, 1.7 inches of snow was measured on The Strip at the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign. Areas of heaviest snow measured between 3 to 6 inches, with local amounts of 8-plus inches in Henderson, the weather service said.
Flights at McCarran resume
The heavy snow caused numerous delays at McCarran International Airport on Wednesday, but airport officials announced this morning that arriving and departing flights operations resumed around 6 a.m.
While McCarran didn't close overnight, low visibility caused by the snow had stopped activity from late Wednesday afternoon until early this morning. The airport is the seventh busiest in the country.
Airport officials said the snow that accumulated overnight on McCarran's runways is melting under the morning sunlight and each of the airport's three runways is open for flight operations.
Because of the poor weather condition Wednesday, many airlines cancelled flights and the Federal Aviation Administration issued a national ground stop that temporarily kept most aircraft bound for Las Vegas from departing.
Travelers who want to fly out of the airport today should contact their air carrier to find out their flight status, airport officials said. Those expecting arriving passengers should also contact the appropriate airlines directly, officials said.
Flight information can also be obtained at www.mccarran.com.
Texans stranded at airport
More than 100 residents of a tiny Texas town who flew to Las Vegas last week paid for by the Las Vegas Convention and Tourism Authority remained stranded at the airport Wednesday night.
Men in cowboy hats slept next to each other near the McCarran exits after finding out their 3 p.m. flight to Cranfills Gap, Texas, was postponed until 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
"We thought we would be able to get back to the Gap and enjoy the sunshine," said Laura Rose, a Cranfills Gap resident. "Didn't think that we'd end up in the desert in the snow."
The Las Vegas tourism group paid for nearly half of the town's 350 residents to visit Las Vegas for five days as part of a marketing campaign to promote the city.
Power outage
Along with the snow, NV Energy reported power outages Wednesday evening along Desert Inn Road, near Maryland Parkway, Mohave Avenue, Pecos Road, Eastern Avenue, Boulder Highway and Seneca Street; Rancho Drive and Valley View Boulevard, Rancho Drive and Washington Avenue; Lake Mead Parkway and Martin Luther King Boulevard; and Washington Avenue and Martin Luther King Blvd.
NV Energy said crews were working to fix the outages. It was unclear what caused the outages.
Police were directing traffic along Maryland Parkway to Pecos Road due to stoplight outages.
Traffic accidents numerous
Streets around the valley were becoming slick and slushy through the evening and into the morning.
Heavy traffic and snow-covered slick streets made the uphill climb troublesome on Eastern Avenue in Henderson, leading to heavy congestion Wednesday night.
The city of Henderson road crews were continuing today to focus efforts to clear snow off Eastern Avenue from Intestate 215 south to the Anthem community, according to Cindy Herman, Henderson's public information manager. Herman said residents are asked to remove abandoned vehicles to assist with the clean-up efforts.
"Commuters along Eastern Avenue should use caution as the weather, change in grade and abandoned vehicles are contributing to hazardous travel conditions. If possible, Anthem residents are asked to avoid the area and find alternate routes for morning commutes," Herman said in a statement released this morning.
The Nevada Department of Transportation announced this morning that Interstate 15 is still closed south of Las Vegas in each direction and is expected to open by noon between Primm and Baker.
The I-15 southbound lanes are closed at St. Rose Parkway because of a truck accident and diesel spill at mile post 27, according to Robert McKenzie, NDOT public information officer.
U.S. Highway 95's southbound lanes are closed at Railroad Pass to Nevada State Route 163 because of snow and icy conditions, McKenzie said. State routes 161, 164 and 165 are closed to traffic.
U.S. Highway 93's north and south lanes to Boulder City are now open again. State Routes 160 and 159 are open to traffic with no controls, McKenzie said.
He said chains, snow tires or four-wheel drive vehicle restrictions are in place for State Route 156 to Mount Charleston. State Route 157 to Mount Charleston is open only to residents until further notice, McKenzie said.
The Nevada Highway Patrol and Metro Police said there had been numerous fender-benders on wet roads, but no serious injuries through Wednesday evening.
As snow continued to pile up, so did the number of car crashes. Metro Police have been working several accidents since the snow began to fall.
One included a pickup truck that had rolled over about 7:15 p.m. in the southbound lane in the 2300 block of Green Valley Parkway outside of the Wild Horse Estate Apartments. The pickup truck knocked down two small trees before it came to a stop in front of the street light. The vehicle rolled once and was on its side, perpendicular to the traffic, blocking the lanes.
At 7:55 p.m., Metro officers were working 26 accidents with four injuries, a hit-and-run, nine other traffic accidents and 11 traffic problems, which range from a stalled car to traffic light outages. The number of traffic incidents decreased into the night as fewer cars were on the roads.
Metro updates its traffic site every 15 minutes with accidents and traffic problems officers are currently working. Officer Jay Rivera said the most common accident officers are seeing involve cars colliding into other vehicles from behind, mostly at traffic lights.
There had been no fatalities through Wednesday evening, he said.
“People are use to following at a certain distance in dry conditions and are following at that same distance in these wet conditions and then rear-ending other cars," Rivera said.
"People aren't used to the snow," Officer Barbara Morgan said. "You need to drive the way conditions dictate."
Metro Police reported 18 wrecks between 2:15 and 3:25 p.m., including two hit-and-runs.
"People are driving silly," Morgan said. "They need to just slow down."
The Nevada Highway Patrol reported two crashes in the Henderson area during the same time frame — one at U.S. 95 and Wagon Wheel Drive and another at U.S. 95 and Horizon Drive. Additionally, U.S. 95 to Searchlight was closed beginning at Railroad Pass.
Motorists traveling to California and outside the Las Vegas Valley were finding major delays on Interstate 15 and other highways.
The Nevada Department of Transportation reported the highway was closed in both direction between Primm and Baker, Calif., because of snowy weather. Officials also said U.S. 95 was closed from the California line to U.S. 93 because of a traffic accident, and State Road 163, State Road 164 and State Road 165 were closed.
NDOT will be deicing bridges and ramps on U.S. 95 and I-15 during the night.
Blue Diamond Highway (SR 160) was closed and motorists were advised to detour using U.S. 95 north to SR 160 south to access Pahrump. Chains, snow tires, or four-wheel drive vehicle restrictions are in place for Mountain Springs and Mount Charleston.
North Las Vegas officials were urging motorists to stay off the streets.
“Motorists should slow down and be aware of their surroundings to avoid slamming on the breaks or jerking the steering wheel on frozen roads,” public works director Qiong Liu said. “These actions could cause a vehicle to veer or slide out of control, posing a risk to the driver and other vehicles on the road.”
The Nevada Highway Patrol was preparing to close Interstate 515 southbound at Railroad Pass, blocking traffic into Boulder City for all but Boulder City residents, Police Chief Thomas Finn said. In addition, traffic along U.S. 93 from Hoover Dam into Boulder City was to be diverted, Finn said.
Traffic will be routed onto Lake Shore Road and through Henderson to get to the Las Vegas area, National Park Service spokesman Andrew Munoz said. Finn said Boulder City residents would be allowed through.
The Regional Transportation Commission has closed a portion of its 402 Route from Nevada State College to Boulder City, and officials cautioned that other bus routes that serve higher elevations may be detoured or delayed as well.
"It can't make it to Boulder City because of the road closures," spokesman Tracy Bower said.
A change of scenery
As Daniel Florez, a pharmacy employee at the CVS Pharmacy on Maryland Parkway and Silverado Ranch Boulevard, scraped a couple of inches of snow off the top of his car using a notebook, he said the snow was a nice change from the usual scenery.
"We were staring out the window all day saying 'I hope it sticks, I hope it sticks,'" he said.
He was, however, a little worried about the drive to his home in the Blue Diamond Road and Durango Road area that he would have to make at the end of his shift.
"It's a little scary out there," he said. "I don't know, Las Vegas people aren't used to this. I hope they can handle it."
J.T. Trainer, a Silverado-area resident who was leaving CVS as the snow piled up, said having grown up in Alaska and in Washington, where his dad used to take him out to do donuts on the snow-covered roads, he was not so much worried about himself, but was concerned about how other people were driving.
"I've seen three car accidents just on my way home from work," he said.
Two were on the freeway and another was when someone was trying to make a turn and slid into a pole, he said.
The weather prompted the city of Henderson to close city offices at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The city announced this morning that offices will resume regular operations today, however, recreation centers won't open until 8 a.m. The Henderson Safekey and Teen Scene sites are closed because of the Clark County school closures.
Outside the Summerlin Library on Dec. 17, Becker Middle School students Aaron Zambrano and Emre Keskintepe were holding up plastic bags collecting snowflakes.
The two 13-year-olds were just like thousands of other local residents taking in the rare snowstorm that struck the Las Vegas Valley.
“They’re pretty big flakes,” Aaron said. “We’re trying to have a snowball fight.”
Emre said he had seen snow before, but never like this in Summerlin.
“It’s weird to see snow covering the palm trees,” Emre said.
At the Boca Park shopping center near the corner of Rampart Boulevard and Charleston Boulevard, Casey Greenberg and her friend Thomas Jokerst watched the falling snow while having dinner at the Kona Grill.
“I think it’s amazing,” said Jokerst, a resident of San Francisco who was in town visiting friends. “I haven’t seen snow in like 15 years.”
“I’ve lived here for 17 years and this is freakish,” Greenberg said. “It snows every once in awhile, but only an inch or so. Nothing like this.”
Clark County has five daytime warming stations open through Friday. The locations are Catholic Charities (7 a.m. to 4 p.m.), 1501 N. Las Vegas Blvd.; Salvation Army (6 a.m. - 7 p.m.), 33 W. Owens Ave.; Cambridge Recreation Center (7 a.m. to 6 p.m.), 3930 Cambridge St.; Dula Gym (7 a.m. - 6 p.m.), 441 E. Bonanza Road; and Valley View Rec Center (7 a.m. - 6 p.m.), 500 Harris St. in Henderson. The area’s night shelters are Catholic Charities; the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, 480 W Bonanza Road; Salvation Army; and Shade Tree (for women only).
Forecast and snow reports
The snow is expected to end from west to east this morning and clouds will decrease this afternoon, according to the weather service's hazardous outlook this morning for Southern Nevada.
Another storm system will bring gusty winds into the area Friday and into Saturday but won't produce as much precipitation as the current storm, forecasters said.
Still another storm will arrive in the area on Monday or Tuesday, bringing another chance of precipitation and gusty winds.
Here is a summary of snow reports from Clark County from the weather service:
• 5:15 p.m., a weather service employee reported 0.1 inch of snow was sticking on the Strip on unpaved surfaces by the Circus Circus Casino.
• 5:15 p.m., 5 inches of snow was measured by a weather service employee near Wagon Wheel and U.S. Highway 95 about five miles west northwest of Boulder City.
• 5:30 p.m., around an inch of snow was sticking on the grass by the MGM Grand as well as on nonpaved surfaces by the Luxor, according to a weather service employee.
• 5:30 p.m., 11 inches of snow was measured at Mount Charleston by a co-op weather observer.
• 6:23 p.m., 3 inches of snow was measured in Henderson by the wife of a weather service employee.
• 6:40 p.m., 4 inches of snow was measured by a weather service employee in south Las Vegas.
• 8:34 p.m., 2.5 inches of snow was measured by a trained spotter near the Boulder Station Casino.
• 8:40 p.m., between 3 and 5 inches of snow was measured in Henderson near Heather and College by a spotter. The spotter also reported several separate vehicles crashed into walls along Interstate 215.
• 8:54 p.m., 7 inches of snow was measured in a residential neighborhood of Henderson near Black Mountain, around 2,700 feet in elevation.
• 8:58 p.m., 1.6 inches of snow was measured by a spotter near Desert Inn and Hollywood.
• 9:08 p.m., 8 inches of snow was measured in the far southeast part of Henderson by a weather service employee near Wagon Wheel and U.S. 95.
• 9:50 p.m., 3.6 inches of snow had fallen at the weather service office in Las Vegas on Dean Martin Road.
• 10 p.m., 6 inches was recorded by a trained weather spotter three miles south-southeast of Henderson.
• 10:30 p.m., 1.7 inches of snow was measured on the Strip at the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" Sign.
-- Sun and Home News staffers contributing to this report were Dave Clark, Amanda Finnegan, Jeff Pope, Cydney Cappello, Kyle Hansen, Cara McCoy, Jean Reid Norman, Mary Manning, Ryan Greene, Ashley Livingston, Cassie Tomlin, Ray Brewer, Steve Silver, Tim Thiele, Evelio Contreras, Emily Richmond, Jeff O’Brien, Steve Green, Tim Richardson and Dave Toplikar.
