It was only about one-third of an inch of rain but it smashed the 39-year-old record in the high-desert, central-Nevada town of Tonopah.
The National Weather Service says the .34 inches of precipitation at Tonopah Airport on Tuesday broke the old record of .07 set in 1979.
Tonopah, which is about 200 miles northwest of Las Vegas, averages only about 8 inches of precipitation annually.
Other regional rain totals Tuesday ranged from 1.2 inches in Henderson and 1.05 inches at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, to about one-tenth of an inch in Reno and on the Utah line at Wendover.
The service says .28 inch fell at Jackpot on the Idaho line and .15 inch at South Lake Tahoe, California.
