The Wasatch Front’s work week will end with showers and thunderstorms, but sunshine and autumnal temperatures will make for an idyllic Saturday.
After Thursday’s low-80s, the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys will see highs in the low-60s on Friday, the last of two days of periodic thunderclaps and occasional rain. Saturday, though, will dawn mostly clear and dry on the way to highs in the upper-60s.
It is as Arizona author Terri Guillemets wrote: “The sun tires of summer and sighs itself into autumn.“
Snowfall is expected at some northern Utah mountain elevations 9,000 feet and above, a reminder that our summer days are behind us.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in southern Utah, where the denizens of the redrocks and high deserts were under a Flash Flood Watch through Thursday night. That was due to wind-driven, widespread showers and scattered thunderstorms in the morning and afternoon hours.
The National Weather Service warned that the rain showers, heavy in places, could send streams, creeks and rivers to higher levels, flood slot canyons and saturate forest slopes recently scarred by wildfires.
Strong storm moving across the Az. border into SW Utah. Wind gusts up to 50 mph, penny-sized hail, and very heavy rain possible #utwx pic.twitter.com/D3do0OqcnI
— NWS Salt Lake City (@NWSSaltLakeCity) September 14, 2017
Utah’s Dixie will see an accompanying plunge in temperatures, too. St. George, forecast to reach the low-80s on Thursday, will slide into the upper-70s on Friday, despite clearing, sunny skies. Saturday will bring highs in the mid-80s.
But there’s this: you may get wet, but at least you can fill your lungs without fear heading toward the weekend. The Utah Division of Air Quality awards “green,” or healthy grades statewide through Friday.
The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website does not have such good news, however. As of Thursday, ragweed was “very high,” sagebrush and mold “high,” and grass and cheopods “medium” on the site‘s pollen index.