The times, they are a changing this weekend. And so is Utah’s weather.
You can blame Sunday’s change to Mountain Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time, when Utahns and other Americans set their clocks back an hour, on Congress and the 1966 Uniform Time Act.
For the windy, wet and cooler weekend ahead for the Wasatch Front, a cold front moving into the region out of the Pacific Northwest is the culprit.
The National Weather Service predicts winds of 15-25 on Saturday and temperatures in the upper-50s to low-60s for northern Utah. Valley rain and mountain snow arrive late Saturday evening and continue into early Sunday, when lows in the mid- to upper-30s precede daytime highs in the low-50s.
That storm system brushes Southern Utah through this weekend, but only in terms of some 10-25 mph winds and partly cloudy skies. Utah’s Dixie still warms into the mid-70s on Saturday, followed Sunday by highs in the upper-60s.
That windy weather might have folks holding onto their hats, caps and bonnets a bit tighter, but it also will help keep air quality in the “green,” or healthy zone statewide, the Utah Division of Air Quality predicts.
And then, this too will pass. Rain and snow will stubbornly cling to the region Monday and Tuesday as temperatures continue to slide. Overnight lows will be near freezing in the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys, while daytime highs will struggle into the mid-40s.
It’s a gradual thing, this retreat toward winter. As Canadian writer Heather Babcock puts it, “Time doesn’t really ‘march on.’ It tends to tip-toe [and] one day, you turn around and its gone.”