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Las Vegas Braces Itself For Record Highs — In The Low 70s

Las Vegas may reach new record highs on Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures in the low 70s predicted. Here, NASCAR racecars drive through the city during an event last month.
Isaac Brekken
/
AP
Las Vegas may reach new record highs on Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures in the low 70s predicted. Here, NASCAR racecars drive through the city during an event last month.

It may just be a marketing stunt. It might be a general nose-thumbing at all the people who freak out over the fact that winter is occurring... as it does every year. But Las Vegas is not hiding the fact that it could break its record high temperature for late January this week.

The most recent forecast we see from the National Weather Service suggests the city could set new highs on two days, a high near 72 predicted for Wednesday and a high near 74 predicted for Thursday.

From The Las Vegas Sun:

"Highs have the potential to surpass records of 71 degrees for Jan. 29 set in 1976 and 72 degrees for Jan. 30 set in 1971, Weather Service meteorologist Chris Outler said."

At around 4 p.m. in Las Vegas Tuesday, the temperature was 67 degrees, the National Weather Service says.

But all is not awesome around Sin City. Wind gusts of between 40-60 mph – and perhaps as high as 70 mph – are predicted in areas north and west of Las Vegas for Wednesday night and Thursday.

And then there's the prevailing worry over water. As The Sun reports, "The valley's record winter drought has reached 54 days, a week longer than the previous record for consecutive dry winter days."

The newspaper adds that there's not a good chance of rain all this week.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.