Updated July 25, 2023
Of all the world's desert oases, Las Vegas is, without a doubt, the most flamboyant.
That said, it sprawls on the eastern edge of the Mojave Desert, the northern edge of the Sonoran desert, and the southern edge of the Great Basin Desert. Thus situated on a spot where three deserts converge, it's one of the driest and hottest urban areas in the United States, a major city (more than two million people in the metro area) located in the center of some of the most inhospitable terrain imaginable. Even lounging poolside in the summer can be problematic -- unless you take off your flesh and sit in your bones.
For at least half the year, the most important miracle of technology is air-conditioning (click for the history of air-conditioning and its arrival in Las Vegas).
In July, the average high temperature is 106 degress (F), the average low 74; August is essentially the same.
The most consecutive days in which temperatures hit at least 100 degrees stands at 66 days, from June 27 through Aug. 31, 1944. The record for the most consecutive days in which the high temperature reached 110 was tied in 2023; it was set in 1962. In general, during a long heat wave such as that (another in 2005 lasted 45 days), the elevated nighttime temperatures (85 degrees is the average low!) make life pretty miserable.
In December, the average high is 58, the average low 34; January is the same. (Don't wear your shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops to hang out and drink cold beer on the Strip on New Year's Eve.)
The hottest days on record reached 117 in three years and on the coldest day, the thermometer plunged to 8 degrees (January 13, 1963).
Las Vegas is not on the list for the 10 hottest U.S. cities; however, it's #1 for least humid and #2 for driest and sunniest.
Las Vegas receives roughly four inches of rain a year and is among the U.S. cities with the lowest relative humidity. However, cyclonic summer storms, known as the monsoon, are often accompanied by cloudbursts that can drop an inch of rain in an hour (record rainfall, Aug. 20, 1957: 2.59 inches), rendering the danger of flash flooding real and worrisome. (There are hundreds of miles of storm drains, tunnels, and canals in Las Vegas' flood-control system; for a deep inside look at the system, and how it hosts the homeless, check out our book Beneath the Neon.) Rain is possible any time of the year and Las Vegas even gets a little snow from time to time.
Winds that carry in the summer storm fronts have been known to shift all the dust from the west side of town to the east and vice versa. But anytime of the year, the winds can be strong.
For current weather conditions and the seven-day forecast: The National Weather Service page on Las Vegas.