This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Pulitzer-winning poet Mark Van Doren might see thunderheads gathering on the Wasatch Front's horizons and remark, "See! The uplands fill with a running light."
That's because south winds of up to 30 mph are to be the vanguard for rain-laden, darkening clouds settling over northern Utah late Thursday night. Friday, too, will be breezy, with isolated rain and thunderstorms building in intensity throughout the day. High temperatures Friday will range into low- to mid-70s, down about 10 degrees, but still toasty.
"Open the doors. It is warm," Van Doren once wrote. "And where the sky was clear — look! The head of a storm that marches here!"
Come Saturday, however, the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys will get markedly cooler: highs in the mid-60s are about it. The odds for rain and thunderclaps, meanwhile, will build throughout the weekend.
Amid southern Utah's high deserts and redrock country, it will be windier and warmer, and while there is a chance for rain, thunder, and lightning, the National Weather Service says that noisy precipitation will be periodic and likely not that significant.
However, Utah's Dixie will see daytime temperatures on Friday drop significantly — from near 90 degrees on Thursday into the upper-60s the next day. On Saturday, the highs approach 70, while the chance for rain increases from possible to probable.
Pollution-scouring wind and rain are the friends of the Utah Division of Air Quality: "green," or healthy conditions ruled statewide going into the weekend.
The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website reported that only mulberry and oak pollen levels were "very high," with all other allergens either "low," or dropping off the index as of Thursday.
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather/.
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