Rain expected to return Thursday

After Sunday's downpour spared its watershed, Carson City and surrounding areas will get a short break from potential flooding before thunder rumbles and hard rain falls again.

The National Weather Service reports local weather conditions will be relatively mild for the next few days.

"We're actually going to enjoy a bit of a respite," National Weather Service meteorologist Jon Bonk said Monday, "but then there's a chances of thunderstorms again later in the week."

Rain is expected to return as early as Thursday afternoon, he said.

Sunday's storm hardly touched the city's burned and barren watershed, and instead concentrated on the east side of town. It stretched as far east as Fernley, where there was minor flooding in the Sario Drive and Sage Drive areas.

Flooding in Silver Springs also damaged Ruby and Opal roads, said Lyon County Sheriff's Capt. Jeff Page. Highway 50 between Silver Springs and Stagecoach was closed temporarily, as was the Ramsey-Weeks Cutoff between Highway 95 Alternate and Highway 50.

As with every heavy rain, Scolari's parking lot on Highway 50 in Carson City was soaked in knee-high water which city and state officials plan to remedy with completion of the Carson City Freeway and installation of underground culverts.

While residents and public safety workers in eastern areas scrambled to minimize road and property damage, the city's watershed to the west escaped the storm, leaving the city's water supply untouched.

"It was very nice for us," said Carson City Water Operations Chief Curtis Horton.

City Engineer Larry Werner said luck was on Carson's side.

"We dodged a bullet," he said. "The storm stopped at the foothill areas."

A mudslide reported in the Lakeview area during Sunday's storm also turned out to be minor, and was more of a slathering of debris across a thin section of Highway 395 in North Carson.

"It was more of a nuisance than anything else," Werner said.

City crews stationed in the area for the flash flood warning cleaned up the mud in a matter of minutes.

State prison crews recently completed digging water diversion berms in King's Canyon, Horton said, while city workers continue to clean storm drainage areas.

He said straw waddles - hillside erosion barriers - also did their job to prevent any major rainwater runoff, and the city will be ready if Mother Nature decides to soak the west side with storms later this week.

Contact Robyn Moormeister at rmoormeister@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.