Mountain snow, valley rain finally arrives in the southwestern United States

A storm that will swing ashore across much of Southern California later this weekend, bringing the first decent rain and mountain snow to parts of the Southwest in weeks, if not months, before the end of January, Accuweather forecasters say.

Las Vegas hasn’t had more than a few drops of rain since July 13, with the city currently experiencing its second-longest dry spell in history. Starting at 194 days, starting Friday, it’s only a stretch of 240 dry days in 2020. The records date back to 1948.

“Las Vegas will likely get more rain from this storm than any storm since March,” Accuweather senior meteorologist John Feerick said. The mid-March storm brought an inch of rain to McCarran International Airport. The southern Nevada desert city’s historical average annual precipitation is 4.21 inches.

The showers will continue to move through the deserts of Southern California and Nevada as well as the dry places of Arizona and New Mexico next week. Showers are in advance feelings for Palm Springs, California; Phoenix and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The same storm will also bring in a lot of cold air. A few inches of snow will spread across the mountains of Southern California in the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico later this weekend Monday through Tuesday.

Enough snow will fall on the higher elevations of Interstate 40 to create slippery conditions and slow travel. Similar problems are likely along I-17 and I-25 to the southwest. The early stages of the storm will bring some snow to Denver for the first part of this weekend.

“There is no question that parts of the Las Vegas Valley will mix in snow on Monday,” Feerick said.

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The same thing may occur Tuesday around Albuquerque, New Mexico, especially over the high ground.

Several inches of snow are piling up in the mountains north of Phoenix, including in the Flagstaff, Arizona area.

After crossing the mountains of the southwestern United States by midweek, the storm will gain new moisture and energy across the southern Plains. From there, major snow, wintry mix and rain will develop across New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Heavy snow may extend into northern and central New Mexico, particularly across the southern high plains and mountains.

For many of the ski resorts in the Southwest, this will be the biggest snowstorm since November. In some areas it will be the largest storm of the winter season.

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