Historic is correct: The storm that swept through southern Nevada on Wednesday December 17 dumped the most snow on Las Vegas since 1979. On Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 of that year, it snowed 7.8 inches; the all-time record was set in January 1949, with 9.7 inches falling over two days. On average, Las Vegas sees a half-inch of snow a year.
The 3.6 official inches on December 17 practically shut down the city, closing the airport, plus major highways and schools throughout the valley. It was the first time since the 1979 storm that Clark County School District (along with Nye County) closed all of its schools for a snow day.
It was also the most snow recorded in December since weather record-keeping began, in 1937. The previous record was two inches, recorded on Dec. 15, 1967. And, according the National Weather Service, it was "the eighth greatest snowstorm ever in official Las Vegas weather records for any month."
An estimated five inches of snow fell on the Strip. In Henderson, which bore the brunt of the storm, as much as six inches of snow was measured. And up on Mt. Charleston, a foot of new snow fell, just in time for the start of ski season.
Particularly hard hit was McCarran Airport, which has neither snow removal nor de-icing equipment, so planes couldn't land on snow-covered runways and they couldn't take off with snow-covered wings. Travelers were stranded all day and 30-minute waits for taxis to and from the airport were common. Flights resumed Thursday morning.
For auto travelers, the story wasn't much better. Interstate 15 was closed at Primm. US 95 was closed at Railroad Pass, and NV 160 was closed between Las Vegas and Pahrump. Clark County has two snowplows, two snowblowers, and two graders to deal with freak storms; essentially, snow removal in Las Vegas consists of waiting for the storm to pass and temperatures to rise, melting the frozen precipitation. County road crews did, however, use a liquid de-icer on I-15 and US 95 bridges and other areas likely to freeze. I-15 reopened at noon on Thursday; US 95 re-opened Thursday morning, but closed again that night because of black ice on the road.
The heavy snow caused some damage around the valley, snapping trees and collapsing carports.
Photos of travelers in T-shirts and shorts taken in ankle deep snow in front of the "Welcome to Fabulous Sign," along with bowed palm-tree fronds and snowmen with dice for eyes flooded the media.
One bookmaker set the odds of 10,000-to-1 against that much snow falling on Las Vegas.
The photographs below appear courtesy of Dale Bratcher, Alex Handrinos, and Erik Kabik/RETNA. Click on the thumbnails for the bigger versions. And for even more snowy Vegas photos, check out David Matthews' Gambling in Space blog.
