Monsoon season arrives with Fourth of July rain, hail in Henderson

Most people associate the Independence Day holiday with sunshine and fireworks, but a small storm cell that blew into the valley unloaded some rain over Henderson.

Some people even reported hail.

As of Friday afternoon, the storm cell in the southeast was the only one to pop up in the valley. But there was another thunderstorm south of the valley, near the Black Mountains.

“It’s very small and intense,” meteorologist Reid Wolcott, with the National Weather Service’s Las Vegas office, said of the storm cell over Henderson.

This is just the start of monsoon season, and other rain clouds may develop as the day goes on, Wolcott said.

The chance of thunderstorms is even greater on Saturday.

“Hope everybody is ready for the rest of the summer,” he said.

Friday’s high temperatures lingered in the low-100s, and Saturday is expected to be slightly cooler, about 98 degrees, Wolcott said. The monsoon in Henderson is coinciding with winds about 25 mph.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl.