This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
"Red Flag" warnings for extreme wildfire danger are in place for roughly half of Utah heading into the weekend, from the southwest quarter of the state to eastern Utah's Uinta Basin.
Gusty winds, bone-dry humidity levels, parched rangelands, forests and high deserts combined with hot temperatures to elevate the risk for new blazes from Duchesne County to Nephi, Manti, Delta and Milford, and from St. George and Zion National Park through the western half of the Utah-Arizona border.
The most critical periods for wildfire danger are from noon Friday to 10 p.m. Sunday, when a shift toward wetter weather is expected to arrive for much of northern Utah.
Storm clouds will arrive along the Wasatch Front Sunday morning, cooling temperatures into the low-80s and bringing thunderstorms and rain. Before that relief, however, the region will endure dry, windy conditions and highs in the upper-90s on Friday and Saturday.
Southern Utahns will not benefit from late-weekend rain, however. Instead, Utah's Dixie braces for continued triple-digit-plus temperatures, winds of 15-25 mph and clear, sunny skies through the weekend.
The Utah Division of Air Quality put most of the state — only Box Elder, Cache and Washington counties got "green," or healthy grades — under "yellow," or compromised air quality conditions through Sunday.
The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website reported that mold and cattail were "high," and grass "moderate" on its pollen index as of Friday morning.
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather/.
Twitter: @remims