This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
At the North Pole, Santa faces a conundrum as he plans his coming flight to the smoggy Wasatch Front: respirator masks for the reindeer, or not?
The Utah Division of Air Quality forecast a degraded urban valley atmosphere beginning Thursday, placing all the state's urban valleys under "yellow" flags for compromised breathing conditions. The Salt Lake Valley's air inversion earned a "mandatory" air quality action advisory urging motorists to avoid unnecessary travel and restricting use of coal and wood-burning stoves.
Equipping Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen with breathing gear might be wise. But what of Rudolph, he of the red nose? Masking his "nose so bright" could make navigating a gift-laden sleigh through the haze rather dicey for the Jolly Old Elf.
Time and air quality will tell. The National Weather Service's longterm forecast does offer a chance for snow on Christmas Day, and perhaps that coming storm system will render Santa's worries moot.
Light snow was falling Thursday in northern and central Utah's mountains and at a few benches, but little precipitation reached the valleys.
The Friday forecast for the Wasatch Front called for cloudy skies and daytime high temperatures in the low- to mid-40s. There was a 20 percent chance for valley rain and mountain snowfall Friday night.
Southern Utahns looked for a sunny Friday morning turning partly clouding as the day progressed with highs in the low-50s, up a few degrees from Thursday's forecast.
The Utah Avalanche Center rated the risk for potentially deadly mountain snowslides beginning Thursday as "moderate" for all monitoring areas except for the Ogden mountains, which earned a "low" risk grade.
For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page at: http://www.sltrib.com/weather.
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