Above-average warmth and valley haze linger
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Happy Tuesday, Utah! Plenty of sunshine and valley haze hold on today as high pressure remains in control of the forecast.
Bottom Line? Temperatures remain 10-15 degrees above average through midweek, valley haze increasing.
The ridge of high pressure holds through the midweek and the ridge centers up over the state today, keeping calm weather in place for the region. Air quality is our biggest weather threat and will continue to decline as a result of the stagnant weather pattern.
Moderate air quality, with elevated particulate matter, is forecast to impact the Wasatch Front, eastern Utah valleys in Duchesne and Uintah counties, as well as portions of Box Elder and Tooele Counties. Building haze will continue to be visible in Northern Utah valleys through the midweek but start to ease by Thursday as a storm takes aim at Utah.
The high pressure in Utah also contributes to unseasonably warm temperatures with daytime highs trending 10-15 degrees above normal for the Wasatch Front through Thursday with low to mid-50s expected. In St. George, daytime highs will likely remain in the mid-60s through Wednesday which is roughly 10 degrees above average for this time of year. Cooler air arrives with a more active pattern late week.
On Thursday, a storm system slides east into the Great Basin from the Pacific Ocean. This next storm has an atmospheric river connection, so it taps into subtropical moisture. When this happens, we typically see a healthy amount of wet weather in the Beehive State. Due to the milder nature of these types of storms, temperatures will likely remain too warm for snow in the valley but will bring significant snow to the mountain regions.
Active weather will likely remain in place into the weekend for much of the state and the storm will rotate through. Temperatures will drop to near-average highs along the Wasatch Front for the weekend, possibly bringing mixed precipitation or light snowfall on Saturday to the valley floor.
This next system is still several days out, however, so we’ll continue to track its progress and nail down precipitation expectations as we get closer.
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