This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
The solar hammer of summer has finally lifted from northern Utah, where the midweek forecast has daytime heat giving way to mere warmth, and sultry nights bowing to by crisp, cool dawns.
Wednesday morning's lows were in the upper-50s to low-60s along the Wasatch Front, down some 20 degrees from readings of just little more than a week ago. The National Weather Service predicts overnight temperatures will remain in that range the rest of this week.
The forecast calls for highs in the low- to mid-80s for the region through Friday under skies varying from clear and sunny to partly cloudy.
"Lord, it is time," as the Bohemian poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote. "Let the great summer go. Lay your long shadows on the sundials . . . . Command the last fruits to be ripe [and] urge them to completion, and with power drive final sweetness to the heavy grape."
Summer's fading is less-pronounced, but nonetheless sure in the redrocks and high deserts of southern Utah. High temperatures slide a few degrees in the forecast for the coming days, with low- to mid-90s expected Wednesday through Friday, and lows in the upper-60s.
Thunderstorms, too, lingered over Utah's Dixie, though the chances for rain showers are markedly diminished as the work week winds toward its end.
The Utah Division of Air Quality also welcomes the first hints of coming autumn with uniform "green," or healthy grades for all of the state's monitoring stations through the week's end.
The change is not as welcome to allergy sufferers, however. The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website reported Wednesday that chenopods are "very high," sagebrush and mold "high," and ragweed and grass are "moderate" on its pollen index.
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather/.
To read translations of Rilke's poem "Autumn Day" in its entirety, visit http://www.thebeckoning.com/poetry/rilke/rilke4.html.
Twitter: @remims