Thursday February 8, 2024
8 News Now —
The attention is on Southern California right now, but an atmospheric river’s path will extend inland with potential flooding — and possible drought relief.
If you’re watching the weather, it’s still a little early to tell whether these storms will go where they can hope Las Vegas the most. That’s anywhere in the Upper Colorado River Basin, where there’s a chance they could produce snow to help the river that supplies 90% of the water used in Southern Nevada.
When it rains in Las Vegas, officials remind residents to turn off their outdoor sprinklers and rely on nature instead. Those water savings make significant contributions to conservation efforts.
The paths of this year’s atmospheric rivers are unlike the ones that slammed the Sierras last year. Those storms carried snow straight east through Northern Nevada and Utah, feeding the Rocky Mountains with snowpack levels that reached 160% of normal by the end of winter. That snow provided relief from drought years that had everyone watching nervously as Lake Mead dropped in 2022.