This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Continuing hot, windy and tinder-dry conditions prompted the National Weather Service on Thursday to issue a Red Flag wildfire danger warning covering much of the western half, southwestern and southcentral Utah.
That advisory remained in force through 10 p.m. Sunday for the western deserts, southwestern redrocks region and stretching east into the Grand Staircase-Escalante region. Winds of 30-40 mph, gusting to 50 mph, were expected the worsen already parched conditions.
The heat, some 10-15 degrees above normal for this time of year, had the reverse effect on northern Utah, where a Flood Watch was in place for the Weber River through Friday afternoon. Accelerated snowmelt has the river bank-full along its course between the Morehouse to the Rockport reservoirs.
While it is hot, daytime highs are not expected to set records through the remainder of this week. Salt Lake City's forecast for a 96-degree high for Thursday was 5 degrees shy of history-making, and a cooling trend — around 90 on Friday and the mid-80s on Saturday — will keep past records safe.
Sunny to mostly clear conditions will prevail in the capital heading into the weekend, though it will be breezy.
Southern Utahns, too, likely will escape record-setting heat, at least for now. St. George looked for the upper-90s on Friday, about the same as Thursday's highs; Saturday was to bring low- to mid-90s to the area.
The Utah Division of Air Quality awards blanket "yellow," or moderate particulate pollution grades for the entire state through the end of the work week.
The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website rated grass, mold and plantains at "high" on its pollen index, but other allergens were either "low" or did not register as of Thursday.
For more extensive forecast information visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/news/weather/.
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