Life returning to normal after snow storm turns things upside down

The short version of this story: It's over. The snow is all but gone. The roads are open. School is back in session. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the planes are flying blue skies again.

The longer version?

Interstate 15 reopened Thursday at the Nevada-California state line, where it had been closed because of snow.

U.S. Highway 95 between Las Vegas and Boulder City reopened, where it had been closed for the same reason.

Same goes for State Route 160 between Las Vegas and Pahrump and all of the other minor roads that were closed.

And it's likely they'll stay open. The National Weather Service said the area forecast looks pretty good in the coming days.

Highs will be in the 40s and maybe even the 50s. Another storm might happen but it probably won't drop much, if any, precipitation.

Snowfall totals for the Wednesday/Thursday storm were record-breaking.

Officially, 3.6 inches fell at the weather service's office, a record for December. It's also the most snow on record for a single storm since January 1979, when 7.8 inches fell.

Elsewhere in the valley, as much as 8 inches fell. Henderson saw the most snow. Even the Strip got 1.7 inches.

All of this added up to 0.73 inches of actual water, which brought December's total up to 1.02 inches, the ninth wettest December ever.

The valley's rainfall total for the year so far is 2.51 inches. On average, Las Vegas receives 4.26 inches of rain through Dec. 18.

"So we're about 1.75 inches below normal" for the year, said the National Weather Service's Andrew Gorelow.

There's nothing complicated about the way meteorologists determine the water content of snow.

"We just let the snow melt into the rain bucket and measure the liquid," Gorelow said.

The Clark County School District decided late Wednesday to cancel classes and all extracurricular activities for Thursday. School is back in session Friday.

Normalcy also resumed in areas where the most snow fell.

Chains, snow tires or four-wheel-drive were required on State Route 156 at Mount Charleston. The mountain saw an excess of 10 inches of snow in most places. Restrictions on State Route 157 were lifted Thursday.

The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort reported that all three lifts were open, as were most trails. The resort got 14 inches of fresh snow and reported deep, light, powdery conditions.

The Regional Transportation Commission said all bus routes were back up by Thursday afternoon.

The southern valley community of Anthem, which got more than 8 inches of snow, saw some of its hilly roads turn into parking lots.

Many roads on Thursday were littered with vehicles abandoned by frustrated owners, said Anthem resident Caroline Corbett.

“They had to leave them because they couldn’t get up the hill,” she said.

Corbett was working at an Anthem drug store used by motorists who needed a restroom or cold-weather gear such as gloves, hats and even shoes for their walks home.

The native New Yorker lived spent her life dealing with winter snow, but even this one would have given easterners something to talk about, she said.

“It was big time,” she said.

At McCarran International Airport, incoming and departing flights grounded because of an uncooperative Mother Nature took to the air Thursday.

The airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration canceled flights Wednesday afternoon.

This caused a mess.

"We knew the weather was going to be kind of bad, but we didn't expect it to be this bad," said Ryan Link, 25, a college student from Kentucky.

Link and friend Amanda Krieg, 22, were visiting just for fun.

They'd been here since Monday.

Link's flight didn't leave until Thursday afternoon, so he was fine. No delays.

But Krieg, a student at Mississippi State University, wasn't so lucky.

She was supposed to leave Thursday morning. She found out at the airport that her flight was canceled.

She booked another one. It leaves Friday. Which means she was stuck. At the airport. With only a $25 coupon from the airline, good only at the airport, to buy things.

"I'm good," she said. "I'm just going to hang out here."

Also hanging out there was Vicky Moore, who was laughing at you.

Moore, 57, had a 4:30 p.m. Wednesday flight back home. It was canceled. She got a rescheduled flight — for 10 a.m. Friday.

What's worse: she was here visiting a friend who lives in Pahrump. That friend couldn't return to the airport by the time Moore's flight had been canceled because the road between Las Vegas and Pahrump was closed.

Which meant Moore was stuck at the airport until Thursday afternoon, when that road reopened.

So, why was she laughing?

She's from Michigan.

Review-Journal reporters Henry Brean, Brian Haynes, James Haug, Francis McCabe, and Antonio Planas contributed to this story. Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.