Jeff Schneider shakes a tree full of snow near the Cathedral Rock trailhead at Mount Charleston on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. “I heard my brother talking about the weather at Mt. Charleston and all the snow and I mentioned it to Zack [Schneider], so we made a plan to come up here,” Cassae Overton (not pictured) said. “It was a pretty last-minute decision. It was a ton of fun playing in the snow.” Patrick Connolly Las Vegas Review-Journal @PConnPie
Zack Schneider winds up to throw a snowball at his brother, Jeff, near the Cathedral Rock trailhead at Mount Charleston on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. "I heard my brother talking about the weather at Mt. Charleston and all the snow and I mentioned it to Zack, so we made a plan to come up here," Cassea Overton (not pictured) said. "It was a pretty last-minute decision. It was a ton of fun playing in the snow." Patrick Connolly Las Vegas Review-Journal @PConnPie
Zack Schneider looks around a tree to throw a snowball at Cassea Overton near the Cathedral Rock trailhead at Mount Charleston on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. "I heard my brother talking about the weather at Mt. Charleston and all the snow and I mentioned it to Zack, so we made a plan to come up here," Overton said. "It was a pretty last-minute decision. It was a ton of fun playing in the snow." Patrick Connolly Las Vegas Review-Journal @PConnPie
Zack Schneider winds up to throw a snowball near the Cathedral Rock trailhead at Mount Charleston on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. "I heard my brother talking about the weather at Mt. Charleston and all the snow and I mentioned it to Zack, so we made a plan to come up here," Cassae Overton (not pictured) said. "It was a pretty last-minute decision. It was a ton of fun playing in the snow." Patrick Connolly Las Vegas Review-Journal @PConnPie
Zack Schneider pushes Cassea Overton in her sled while Jeff Schneider sleds in the background near the Cathedral Rock trailhead at Mount Charleston on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. "I heard my brother talking about the weather at Mt. Charleston and all the snow and I mentioned it to Zack, so we made a plan to come up here," Overton said. "It was a pretty last-minute decision. It was a ton of fun playing in the snow." Patrick Connolly Las Vegas Review-Journal @PConnPie
Zack Schneider looks to throw a snowball at his brother, Jeff Schneider, while Cassea Overton, right, prepares a snowball near the Cathedral Rock trailhead at Mount Charleston on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. "I heard my brother talking about the weather at Mt. Charleston and all the snow and I mentioned it to Zack, so we made a plan to come up here," Overton said. "It was a pretty last-minute decision. It was a ton of fun playing in the snow." Patrick Connolly Las Vegas Review-Journal @PConnPie
Jeff Schneider tries to put snow on his brother Zack’s face near the Cathedral Rock trailhead at Mount Charleston on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. "I heard my brother talking about the weather at Mt. Charleston and all the snow and I mentioned it to Zack, so we made a plan to come up here," Cassae Overton (not pictured) said. "It was a pretty last-minute decision. It was a ton of fun playing in the snow." Patrick Connolly Las Vegas Review-Journal @PConnPie
Cars drive through flooded streets on West Sirius Avenue and Rancho Drive on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, in Las Vegas. Benjamin Hager Las Vegas Review-Journal @benjaminhphoto
The silhouette of the Stratosphere hotel-casino on an unusually rainy day on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, in Las Vegas. Benjamin Hager Las Vegas Review-Journal @benjaminhphoto
Cars drive through flooded streets on West Sirius Avenue and Rancho Drive on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, in Las Vegas. Benjamin Hager Las Vegas Review-Journal @benjaminhphoto
First-grade teacher Shereen Sayegh watches as students arrive at St. Viator Elementary School on a rainy morning on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, in Las Vegas. Tuesday shows a forecast high of 69 degrees, breezes and a 40 percent chance of rain. Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye
A shaft of light breaking through the dark clouds as seen from Volunteer Boulevard in Henderson Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Tuesday shows a forecast high of 69 degrees, breezes and a 40 percent chance of rain. Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye
A shaft of light breaking through the dark clouds as seen from Volunteer Boulevard in Henderson Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Tuesday shows a forecast high of 69 degrees, breezes and a 40 percent chance of rain. Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye
Members of the Arbor View varsity softball team share an umbrella after their game was cancelled due to rain at Arbor View High School in Las Vegas Tuesday, May 1, 2018. K.M. Cannon Las Vegas Review-Journal @KMCannonPhoto
A pedestrian who declined to give his name crosses Sixth Street at Ogden Avenue in light rain in downtown Las Vegas Tuesday, May 1, 2018. K.M. Cannon Las Vegas Review-Journal @KMCannonPhoto
David Jacobs/Pahrump Valley Times
Steady rain falls in Pahrump during the afternoon of Tuesday, May 1 as shown in this photo taken along Nevada Highway 372 west of Nevada Highway 160. Additional rain fell on Wednesday.
David Jacobs/Pahrump Valley Times
A mix of fog, clouds and snow is seen in the Mountain Springs area on Wednesday, May 2 along Highway 160. Sunshine was set to return to the forecast later in the week.
Maria Bennington via Pahrump Valley Times’ Facebook
Pahrump Valley Times reader Maria Bennington provided this photo of the hail in Pahrump as a second round of storms moved through the area on Wednesday.
Selwyn Harris/Pahrump Valley Times
Street flooding along the 2900 block of Dandelion Street as shown in a Wednesday photo. Strong storms moved through the region that afternoon.
May came in like a lion as rain fell in Pahrump, lightning flashed and thunderstorms pelted parts of the Las Vegas Valley, and snow covered higher-elevation areas on Mount Charleston.
Thunder and lightning occurred in Pahrump, too, on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Readers took to the Facebook page of the Pahrump Valley Times to report where they were and what they were seeing as the Wednesday’s storm moved in.
“All the way south by the brothels,” Lisa Miller said of her location at the time. “Crazy wind, thunder, lightning, pouring rain and pea-sized hail.”
Melissa Sharrer said, “A pond and cars covered in hail on the south side.”
In Pahrump, Nye County Commission Chambers were damaged as the result of Wednesday’s rainstorm, prompting the relocation of new voting machine demonstration on Thursday, the county reported via social media.
Elsewhere, areas of Mount Charleston received 3 to 6 inches of snowfall Tuesday, the weather service said. Officials said another 1 to 2 inches could fall on Wednesday. The latest date in the year that snow fell on Mount Charleston was June 17, 1995, Reid Wolcott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said.
The weather service issued a winter weather advisory for the Spring Mountains and Sheep Range north of Las Vegas that remained in effect until 5 a.m. Thursday. Scattered snow showers were mentioned as potentially causing unexpected winter weather conditions through the area.
In Pahrump, between 0.17 inches and 0.30 inches of rain was recorded in the 24-hour period ending at noon Wednesday.
In the Las Vegas area, lightning was seen throughout the western valley, and flashes also were reported with storms over the central and south valley, the National Weather Service said.
“So it’s basically everywhere,” meteorologist Chelsea Kryston said.
Over the last 30 years, more than 5 inches of snow has accumulated on Mount Charleston just six times during the month of May, meteorologist Ashley Wolf said.
“We might get close to that,” Wolf said earlier Tuesday.
The mountain’s record for snow in May was 10 inches, which all fell on May 7, 1986, Kryston said.
The snowfall record for May 1 is 3 inches, measured in 1983, she said.
Warming up soon
Summer-like weather is expected soon as the region makes a quick transition from winter-type conditions.
The daily high in Pahrump is projected near 96 by Tuesday, May 8 with mostly sunny skies. At Death Valley, the high on May 9 is forecast at 110.
A ridge of high pressure over the region will lead to well above normal temperatures today and Saturday with readings about 10-15 degrees above normal, the weather service said.
High pressure will build into the region, allowing a warming and drying trend to commence, the weather service added in its statement.
— Compiled from reports by the Pahrump Valley Times staff and Las Vegas Review-Journal.
