This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Salt Lake City's first fall frost — let alone a killing one — is late this year. In other words, there's still time to slap on some new planks up in the barn before that pony named "Wildfire" busts down his stall.
Michael Martin Murphey's melancholy western ballad might apply to the Wasatch Front's weather soon enough. But as of Wednesday, with the morning low at 36 degrees, Utah's capital was nearing three weeks beyond the average date for its first frost: Oct. 19.
The National Weather Service reports that the latest first frost recorded for Salt Lake City came on Nov. 16, 1921; the earliest was Sept. 13, 1928. Last year, meteorologists say they spotted the first skiffs of hoary ice in the capital on Nov. 7.
So, there was no icy film at the NWS' Salt Lake City International Airport station dawn Wednesday, but it was still cold enough to watch your breath escape in puffs of gray mist. By afternoon, under the brightness of a receding Sol, the forecast was for temperatures in the upper-50s for the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys.
Lows on Thursday, predicted to be in the low- to mid-30s, could yet bring that first frost to the valley floors. It will be a bit warmer than Wednesday — near 60 degrees — by afternoon. Friday's forecast calls for lows in the mid- to upper-30s and highs in the low-60s, though cloud cover is expected to gradually build by evening hours.
Worries about breakaway ghost horses were even more removed in southern Utah, where overnight lows ranging in the mid-40s to low-50s were forecast through the remainder of the work week. Highs in the mid-70s were expected in Utah's Dixie Wednesday through Friday, though breezy conditions and scattered rain showers were on the menu late Thursday and throughout Friday.
The Utah Division of Air Quality offers "green," or healthy grades statewide over the next couple days, while the Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website reported that only mold was "high" on its pollen index as of Wednesday.
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather/.
Twitter: @remims