Heavy rain hits valley

The call came in amid Wednesday morning's downpour: A body was floating in fast-moving water in the Flamingo Wash.

A search-and-rescue crew, joined by a helicopter, rushed to the wash, near Boulder Highway.

The body, however, turned out to be a life-size blowup doll.

That seemed to sum up Wednesday's rains -- a lot of water, but not the kind that caused death or destruction.

The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory Wednesday morning for Southern Nevada but lifted it around 11 a.m.

Early morning and afternoon showers soaked parts of the Las Vegas Valley, causing some minor flooding and dumping almost an inch of rain near Buffalo Drive and Tropicana Avenue and almost 2 inches at Blue Diamond Ridge.

Mount Charleston received 2.5 inches of rain from Tuesday through Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service reported.

Some valley residents welcomed the rainfall as a refreshing change from the punishing summer sun.

"It was so cool. I wish it stayed like that all the time," said 62-year-old Linda Wilkins, who was shopping at a Smith's grocery store on Rancho Drive near Charleston Boulevard.

Originally from Durham, N.C., Wilkins said the rain reminded her a little of her home state.

Rain is common this time of year, said Ken Clark, a senior meteorologist with the Accu Weather service. Monsoon moisture from the gulfs of Mexico and California meets with the desert heat in Southern Nevada and creates the storms, he said.

There has been more rain this year than last.

From Jan. 1 to July 31, 2006, Las Vegas received an accumulated total of 0.34 of an inch of rain. During the same period this year, Las Vegas received 0.59 of an inch, Clark said. Las Vegas' total precipitation last year was 1.69 inches.

Don Kemp, a Las Vegas resident, said he was driving on Interstate 15 at St. Rose Parkway on Wednesday morning when it began to rain. Like Wilkins, Kemp, 41, enjoyed the rain.

"It cleaned up the air a little," he said.

Even though the rain came on suddenly, it didn't cause major flooding.

Gale Fraser, general manager of the Regional Flood Control District, said the Tropicana Detention Basis, near Russell Road and Decatur Boulevard, received 15 feet of water, the most of any detention basin in the county, but nowhere near its capacity.

"It can hold a lot more water than that," Fraser said.

As of late Wednesday, rescue crews had not recovered the blowup doll.