My family will be in Las Vegas over Christmas, coming from Duluth. We understand that temperatures can be chilly, but what are the chances it could snow? Not that we'd mind a white Christmas, but Duluth averages around 20 inches of snow in December, so we're hoping to get away from it.
We'd say your chances of escaping snow on Christmas are pretty good, though it's not an entirely sure thing.
According to the Las Vegas branch of the National Weather Service, traces of snow were recorded at McCarran International Airport on December 25 in 1941, 1988, 2008, and 2015. The situation a couple years ago is representative; flurries that hit the area between midnight and 2 a.m. had melted by dawn.
Las Vegas came close to a white Christmas in 2008. On December 17 of that year, the area received up to eight inches, necessitating the first snow-day school closures since 1989. But the snow disappeared several days from the Christmas.
The city did have a white New Year's in 1974. That year, a slow-moving storm dumped between four and five inches of snow on January 1, 4, and 5, for a total of 13.4 inches over the five-day period, producing “glass-like” road conditions and resulting in hundreds of auto accidents.
The record snowfall for a 24-hour period occurred on January 31, 1979. That day, 7.4 inches of snow closed every school in the Clark County School District, along with UNLV and Clark County Community College. Power outages hit the whole valley and more than 150 automobile accidents kept Metro very busy.
As a general rule, snowfall in Clark County is more likely in January than December.
