Warm weather expected to continue in Carson City

Families around Carson City headed outside Monday to take advantage of the unusually temperate Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

“I told my wife, ‘It’s really nice out. Let’s take the kids to the park,’” said Shawn Oates, 37.

He and his wife, Andrea, and two children, Shawn, 9, and Emily, 5, spent the afternoon at Mills Park on the swings and other playground equipment.

Nine-year-old Shawn wore jeans and a short-sleeved jersey.

“I think it’s kind of awkward,” he said. “Usually in the winter, it’s mostly cold and snowy.”

His father remembers a different scene growing up in Carson City.

“I was here in the flood in the ’80s,” he said. “I used to watch people go to work in canoes down Lompa Lane.”

High temperatures should continue to be in the mid- to high 50s for the next couple of days, according to the National Weather Service, and then dip into the high 40s on Thursday and Friday.

That’s good news to Edin Aguilar, 25, who also grew up in Carson City.

“I prefer this weather, but it’s pretty unusual,” he said. “Usually it’s snowing or there’s a little rain. When I was younger, we used to get a lot of snow. Now, it’s once in a blue moon.”

His girlfriend, Ana Gonzalez, 25, also was enjoying the temperate day. But the warming trend makes her nervous.

“It’s dangerous,” she said. “Think of the drought. There’s not going to be enough water in the summer with this level of snow.”

This month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture classified most of Nevada as being at a severe drought level, which raises the concern of financial distress to the agriculture industry and raises the risk of wildfire.