This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
It's going to be a cold, wet and windy ending to northern Utah's week, with icy valley rain and heavy mountain snow on the meteorological menu.
The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Warning for the state's mountainous spine from Logan south through Ogden, Salt Lake City, Provo, Nephi, Richfield and Cedar City, stretching into the Unitas to the Wyoming border, and including the Monticello and Moab areas of eastern Utah.
Beginning 4 p.m. Thursday, that advisory extends through 4 a.m. Saturday, bringing 1-2 feet of fresh snow to the mountains and anywhere from a couple inches to half-a-foot to valley and bench locales.
High winds — 35-50 mph, and gusting to 80 mph along the ridge-tops — will make the wintry weather hazardous, whipping snowfall into drifts and lowering visibility along the higher elevation spans of the state's freeways and highways.
Indeed, a High Wind Warning was ordered for large swaths of west-central and southwestern Utah beginning 10 p.m. Thursday through 4 p.m. Friday. Steady winds of 30-40 mph, gusting to 60 mph or more, were expected from Delta, Fillmore and Beaver to Cedar City and Milford.
The Salt Lake and Tooele valleys will see mostly rain and occasional thunder during the next couple days with temperatures ranging from overnight lows in the 20s and daytime highs in the mid- to upper-40s.
Breezy, cooler weather will settle in late Friday, however, bringing about 2 inches of snow to the valley floors. Saturday, with highs sliding into the 20s, will see more snowfall throughout the Wasatch Front.
Precipitation southern Utah's deserts and redrock regions will take the form of rain, heavy at times. In addition to warnings of high winds Thursday through Friday night, Utah's Dixie was placed under a Flash Flood Watch for the same period.
Highs will be near 60 degrees Friday for the region, down a few degrees from Thursday, with lows ranging from the upper-20s to low-30s. Saturday will see highs for St. George and Zion National Park dip into the upper-40s as rain and occasional thunderstorms persist.
The Utah Avalanche Center rated the Uintas at "considerable" risk for potentially deadly mountain backcountry snowslides on Thursday, while the Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake and Provo districts were rated "moderate" and the Moab and Abajo mountains were at "low" risk.
The Utah Division of Air Quality offered a mixed report card for particulate pollution levels for the next couple days. The urban valleys of Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Utah counties, and Box Elder County were "yellow," or moderately degraded; the remainder of the state earned "green," of healthy air quality assessments.
For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/weather/
Twitter: @remims