This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After a wild, wet, and windy Saturday, Utah gets a calmer interlude on Sunday. Come Monday, however, rain and occasional thunderclaps will return to the Wasatch Front for several days.
The National Weather Service began Saturday with a High Wind Warning in place for the Great Salt Lake Desert through 8 p.m., from the Nevada border all the way east through Snowville. Southerly winds of 25-35 mph, gusting to 50 mph, were predicted. Drivers of high-profile vehicles were on watch for strong crosswinds along Interstate 80 and State Route 30.
Forecasters also issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook for the western two-thirds of the state this weekend, not only due to the winds kicking up dust and making travel in some locales a white-knuckle affair, but rain and, in the mountains snow, as a storm front smothered the region.
In the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys, a soppy, windblown Saturday brought the mercury tumbling down to daytime highs in the mid-50s, nearly a 30-degree retreat from Friday's warmth. Sunday will be closer to 60 degrees, however, as rain briefly subsides under partly cloudy skies.
Erratic winds of 10-20 mph welcomed dawn in southern Utah Saturday, and high temperatures dipped from Friday's near-90 readings into the upper-60s. Utah's Dixie did expect to dodge the rain, though, until Sunday evening. Sunday's highs in the redrocks region will rise into the mid- to upper-70s.
The Utah Division of Air Quality's assessment of breathability this weekend was universally "green," or healthy.
However, if you suffer allergies the weekend was not so great. The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website reported that mulberry, ash, oak and cedar pollens were at "very high" levels as of Saturday, while sycamore was "high."
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather/.
Twitter: @remims