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A rare winter storm swept through Southern Nevada Wednesday, dumping the most snow on the valley in nearly three decades, grounding flights at the airport, forcing the closure of major highways and closing schools for today."This is the most snow we've had in Las Vegas in almost 30 years," said Chris Stachelski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "It's a significant historical event."At 9:50 p.m. Wednesday, the weather service measured a record-breaking 3.6 inches of snow at its office location southwest of McCarran International Airport. It was the highest snow accumulation recorded in the month of December in Las Vegas since the start of official records in 1937. The previous record was 2 inches of snow, which fell on Dec. 15, 1967.The weather service dubbed the storm as "the eighth greatest snowstorm ever in official Las Vegas weather records for any month."The heaviest snowfall hit the southeast valley, where about 3 inches had accumulated by 7:45 p.m., with unconfirmed reports of as much as 6 inches in Henderson, Stachelski said.Between 6 to 10 inches could fall in that area by the time the storm tapers off this morning, and the northern and western parts of the valley could receive up to 4 inches of snowfall, he said.The storm dumped 11 inches of snow on Mount Charleston. Wednesday's snowfall in the valley also was the most since 1979, when 7.8 inches fell in a 48-hour period, beginning Jan. 30. The record was set in January 1949, with 9.7 inches falling over two days, according to the weather service.The weather prompted the Clark County School District to close all schools today....Review-Journal reporters Henry Brean, Francis McCabe, Antonio Planas and Benjamin Spillman contributed to this report.
By BRIAN HAYNES--LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
As in the days of Noah....
