Pahrump inches closer to record number of days without rainfall

It’s been a week of record breaking for the town of Pahrump as far as the area’s dry spell is concerned, and the trend is threatening to continue.

Ashley Wolf, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Las Vegas, said Pahrump hit the no. 12 spot for the number of days without precipitation at 104 days, as of Wednesday. If that stretch continues through Saturday, the Pahrump area would officially be in the top 10 for the number of days without rain at 107 days.

And there may be no relief in sight for the short term.

“There’s no precipitation in the forecast for at least the next 10 days,” Wolf said.

On top of the long dry spell, Pahrump welcomed a large wall of dust, cold and wind just days before Christmas on Dec. 20, when gusts up to 51 mph were reported.

Wolf said there was no advisory issued because the cloud came through quickly. The last dust warning was on Aug. 30.

Pahrump resident Donna Cooper said dust is a continuous issue that comes with living in the desert region.

The dust builds and gets on furniture, which has to be removed with a damp cloth. Doing that is bad for the furniture, she said.

“Here in Pahrump we don’t dust, we dirt,” Cooper said Thursday.

Will Pahrump hit the top record?

The weather is not expected to carry any heavy winds through Sunday.

The winds are expected to stay calm this weekend with average highs in the mid-60s, with Saturday a little warmer than Sunday. The overnight lows will reach down to 30 degrees through Sunday, Wolf said.

The Pahrump region began keeping weather data in 1914. Since that time, the longest stretch without rainfall was 252 days—ending on Nov. 1, 1959. The record after that was 213 days, according to Wolf.

Pahrump is also just over a month away from hitting the third longest dry spell on record at 141 days, according to data from the weather service.

Pahrump’s neighboring city has already reached its top spot for the number of consecutive days without rain.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a dry spell has also hit Las Vegas.

With no rain on Christmas Eve, Las Vegas broke a 73-year record with the number of days without rain. The Las Vegas Valley has gone 102 days without a drop, according to McCarran International Airport’s weather data station.

The last record was 101 days without rain, which occurred in 1944.

Beatty hit the same record of no rainfall, at 102 days, on Dec. 14, 1995.

Wolf said the Beatty station began reporting in 1972 and stopped in 2008. The station wasn’t an official station but a co-op, Wolf said.

Las Vegas also had an air quality advisory sent out by the Clark County Department of Air Quality on Dec. 26, the Review-Journal reported. That advisory remains in effect through Friday, with “high levels of fine particles persisting due to stagnant air conditions,” the department stated in a news release.

Air quality

According to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection’s Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Program, which tracks air quality data, nearly in real time, Pahrump has experienced good to moderate levels of air quality from Dec. 26-28.

Air quality in Pahrump hit the moderate level from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, measured by an air quality index (AQI), across six different levels, from good to hazardous.

At the moderate level, one level of intensity above the good level, it is advised that individuals that are unusually sensitive avoid prolonged or heavy activity.

Unusually sensitive individuals could experience respiratory symptoms or it may aggravate people suffering from cardiopulmonary disease and older adults when air quality lessens to the moderate level.

Contact reporter Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes