Record Snow Fall in Las Vegas, Nevada

An unusual amount of snow fell in the Las Vegas Valley two out of three days, making one of the hottest places the country during other seasons, feel like a real winter wonderland. Monday Dec. 15th and Wednesday Dec. 17, 2008 were the two days that Las Vegas residents got to experience what winter feels like for other parts of the country. Most of the snowfall from Monday melted away on Tuesday, only to return on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. This was the most snowfall that Las Vegas got in almost three decades, at approximately 3.6 inches.

Of course, motorists had a hard time driving in it. Parts of freeways were closed as well as some schools. They even closed the airport. Flights scheduled to land in Las Vegas stayed on the ground due to poor visibility. A place that doesn't get to see snowfall like this regularly isn't prepared for these types of situations.

Residents of places that get massive amounts of snowfall each and every year would probably laugh, if they knew that roads and schools were being close down with only a few inches of snowfall. Places like Chicago and New York still operate regularly, even when they get a few feet of snow. Of course those places have trucks with snowplows to push the snow off of the roads as well as salt trucks to keep the snow from building up when it hits the ground.

Las Vegas does actually get snow every year, but it's more like 1/2 of an inch. That kind of snowfall melts and soon as it hits the ground. The snow itself was not a surprise to local residents, but the fact that it piled up on our cars, houses, and streets made this snowfall particularly significant. It was weird to be able to look outside and see everything covered in white. It looked pretty, but that's about it. Similar to the southern Californian valley that have places like Big Bear, if we want to be in the snow, all we have to do is go up to the ski and snowboard resort at Mt. Charleston, which received more than a foot of fresh snow that night.

The last time Las Vegas got a significant amount of snow was at the end of January in 1979. Back then the weather service recorded 7.5 inches of snow at McCarran airport. As of Thursday morning, Dec. 18th, most of the snow has melted. With a temperature high of about 46 degrees or so, any snow that has been exposed to the sun, should have melted away totally by now.it