Slightly cooler temperatures come to northern Utah as the work week winds down, thanks to a moist, southwesterly air mass drifting over the region.
Increased cloud cover, isolated thunderstorms and rain showers rolled over the Wasatch Front Thursday, with high temperatures — just recently near triple digits — forecast to dip into the mid- to upper-80s.
Friday’s forecast calls for clear, sunny skies, but highs still will remain in upper-90s territory. Saturday, however, will see the return of hotter weather with the mercury rising into the mid-90s in the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys.
Southern Utahns also were getting cloud cover and scattered thunderstorms and rain on Thursday. Mostly clear skies on Friday will bring high temperatures around 100 degrees — a few degrees warmer that on Thursday. Saturday will be around 101 degrees in Utah's Dixie under sunny horizons.
If you live in any of the state’s highly populated urban valleys, your air quality heading into the weekend will be compromised. The Utah Division of Air Quality gives “yellow,” or moderate grades for ozone and particulate pollution in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Utah, Box Elder and Tooele counties.
The rest of the state earns “green,” or healthy grades, though Carbon County was forecast to slip into the “yellow” zone on Friday.
It is not a good time for allergy sufferers. The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website lists grass, chenopods and mold as “high” on its pollen index as of Thursday, Ragweed was at “moderate” levels, while other allergens were “low” or did not register.