This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"Winter" in northern Utah will make a decidedly unconvincing exit on Thursday, with daytime highs hovering around 60 degrees — about 10-15 degrees warmer than average for the state's typical March.
Thursday's forecast for the Wasatch Front echoed that for Wednesday, predicting breezes of 10-20 mph under increasingly sunny weather.
On Friday, the calendar's myth of winter ends and spring officially begins with highs in the mid-60s under clear, bright skies.
Southern Utahns will send a whimpering Old Man Winter packing with highs in the mid-70s Wednesday and Thursday, despite periodic rain showers. On Friday, though, the clouds clear, and the sunshine will build daytime highs toward 80 degrees.
The midweek's cooler temperatures halted Utah's string of days with record high temperatures, at least for now. On Tuesday, Salt Lake City — which had tied its 1887 record high of 74 degrees on Monday — recorded another 74 to again match a record, this one set in 2007.
The Utah Division of Air Quality graded the entire state as "green," or healthy for breathing conditions, through the end of the week.
The Utah Avalanche Center still advised that the risk for potentially deadly mountain backcountry snowslides was "considerable" in the mountains above Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake City and Provo; the remainder of Utah's high-elevation slopes were at "moderate" risk for avalanches.
For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/weather/.
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