This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

A John Updike forecast for Utah? Well, if you are a rabbit, run . . . for shelter from the rainy weekend ahead.

It's all perspective, really. "Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life," the late American novelist reminded.

Focused less on grace than the cold, wet meteorological facts, the National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook for all but an eastern sliver of the state. The advisory, which extends through the weekend, calls for increasingly boisterous thunderstorms — beginning Friday afternoon — and occasionally heavy rainfall, in places driven by stiff winds.

Along a wet Wasatch Front, high temperatures on Saturday will hover in the upper-50s, a 10-degree retreat from Friday's forecast. More precipitation is on tap Sunday.

Southern Utahns don't escape the coming cold front and its winds and rain, either. Utah's Dixie looked for highs in the upper-60s on Saturday, a 5-7 degree dip from Friday. More showers are forecast for Sunday, but temperatures will once more approach highs of 70 degrees.

Sunny and mild, or with horizons crackling with lightning and booming with thunder claps, we live in the moment. Or, perhaps more to the point, as Updike also remarked: "We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one."

So, until then, and especially this weekend, breathe deep. The Utah Division of Air Quality awarded "green," or healthy air grades for all monitoring stations over the next few days.

However, if you are allergic to mulberry or oak pollen — "very high" and "high," respectively, on the Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website's index as of Friday — you might toss a tissue or two in your pocket.

For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/weather.

Twitter: @remims