Authorities closed portions of main routes from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and Phoenix because of snow, ice and limited visibility

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

February storms have brought rare snowfall to the United States’ south-west this week, covering the Las Vegas Strip and parts of Los Angeles with a thin layer of snow.

In Nevada, the storm dusted casino marquees and prompted revelers to erect a snowman near the celebrated “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign. Some suburban foothill areas were pillowy white after getting several inches of snow.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People take photos in front of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign as snow falls. Photograph: Sam Morris/Las Vegas News Bureau handout/EPA

The National Weather Service reported the first significant snowfall at Las Vegas’s McCarran international airport in a decade, with 0.8in (2 cm) falling by Thursday afternoon.

Though the Associated Press initially reported the weather event as “the first event of its kind since record keeping started back in 1937”, that claim was later disputed by meteorologists.

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The meteorologist Chris Outler said it was much less than the 3.6in (9.1cm) recorded at the airport on 17 December 2008.

The snow snarled flights at the airport and traffic on highways.

“We don’t have snowplows,” the airport spokeswoman Christine Crews said as she tallied about 100 flight cancellations due to snow and ice. “But we have airfield maintenance vehicles and sweepers ready to go.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Snow-covered trees in Vegas on Thursday. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Outside the city, authorities closed portions of the main routes from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and Phoenix because of snow, ice and limited visibility.

The attorney Al Lasso, who moved to Las Vegas from New Jersey 25 years ago, snapped a photo of a ruler standing in 7in (17.8cm) of snow on his back patio in the foothill community of Summerlin.

“When it snows in New Jersey, everyone stays inside. When it snows in Las Vegas, everyone goes outside and makes snow angels,” Lasso said during his slow, 15-mile commute into the city. “A lot of people have never seen snow here.”

Snowstorms further eased drought conditions in California but clogged traffic.

Snow coated large areas of the desert outside Los Angeles and left traffic stalled near Joshua Tree national park.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The light of the Luxor pyramid hotel and casino shines through a rare snowfall in Las Vegas. Photograph: Sam Morris/Las Vegas News Bureau/EPA

The Los Angeles county fire department air operations section posted video of snow falling in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu Thursday afternoon.

The snow closed Interstate 5 through Tejon Pass in the mountains north of Los Angeles.

Wet weather this winter has almost washed drought conditions out of California, according to the US Drought Monitor.

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In Arizona, the storms forced the closure of an airport in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Barney Helmick, the director of the Flagstaff Pulliam Airport, said its only runway closed when the visibility level hit zero. Intense snow also forced the closure of schools and businesses in the region.

Las Vegas recorded a trace of snow on 10 February as several storms moved through the region earlier this month. Some suburban foothill areas got several inches of snow on Sunday.