Winds, Rain, Snow Across Nevada as Colder 2nd Storm Looms

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Wet weather swept into Nevada early Friday morning, packing pre-dawn rain and gusty winds that contributed to slippery roads and crashes in Las Vegas and snow flurries in the Sierra Nevada range.

One of the Las Vegas crashes left a heavy-rescue fire apparatus blocking one of the busiest freeway interchanges in the region.

The National Weather Service said several inches of snow was expected Friday night in the upper elevations around Lake Tahoe. A semi-trailer truck overturned north of Tahoe on rain-slickened pavement Thursday night, shutting down the eastbound lanes of U.S. Interstate 80 at Donner Summit west of Truckee, California for about two hours.

The storm system was starting to move out of the state Friday night, setting the stage for an unseasonably cold and windy but dry weekend, forecasters said. But a second and much colder storm system is expected to arrive Sunday night.

That system is expected to bring hard freezes in the early part of the week and the chance of more mountain show in the northwestern Nevada mountains. Rain is not as likely to reach the Las Vegas metro area.

Power outages were reported about 6 a.m. Friday in and around McCarran International Airport, where the National Weather Service clocked wind gusts of 46 mph (74 kph) before 5 a.m.

Electricity went out in some parts of the main Terminal 1, and traffic signals and lights in parking areas went dark but flight operations were not affected, airport spokesman Joe Rajchel said. Power was restored before 8:30 a.m.

Three firefighters escaped serious injury in the crash about 5:35 a.m. of a Clark County Fire Department heavy rescue rig that ended on its side while headed to a report of a woman trapped in a previous wreck near the Interstate 15 and 215 interchange, Deputy Fire Chief Warren Whitney said.

The woman in the initial crash was freed by other firefighters and hospitalized with minor injuries, Whitney said.

Utility company NV Energy said more than 2,000 customers were without power about 6 a.m. and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada reported multiple crashes on slippery roads.