Rare snow blankets the desert city of Las Vegas

A winter storm has swept through the US Southwest, bringing rare snowfall to the Las Vegas Strip.

The storm forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and led to the closure of two interstate highways.

Dozens of crashes have been reported by Highway Patrol authorities, with the majority of incidents involving cars sliding off the roads.

Schools in the Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas, are to remain closed on Friday.

The city’s famed strip, a seven-kilometre stretch known for hotels and casinos, received about 1.3cm of snow, but the western parts of the city received far more snowfall.

The suburb of Summerlin reported 19cm of snow, and Mount Charlton to the west of the city saw as much as 61cm snowfall.

Being situated in the middle of the Mojave Desert, the city usually doesn’t see much rain, only 93 millimetres in an entire year, let alone snow.