This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Northern Utah's new work week dawned bitterly cold, but a fast-moving warm, westerly flow will push temperatures back up, albeit briefly, on Tuesday.
A cold front will reassert itself by early Wednesday, once more locking the region in a deep freeze and bracing for a fresh round of snow along the Wasatch Range's peaks and valleys alike.
Author George R.R. Martin wrote that "when the cold winds blow the lone wolf dies and the pack survives." And Monday's pre-dawn hours certainly stirred the primordial urge to cuddle under the blankets a bit longer.
Monday morning arrived with Cedar City at minus-2 degrees, while Randolph and Heber shivered right at zero. Dugway hit 5 degrees, American Fork 8, Provo 7, Logan, Ogden and Vernal 10s, and Salt Lake City at 16, though wind chill made it feel like 5 degrees in the state's capital.
The 10-degree low Monday at Capitol Reef National Park was a record, beating 2008's 11-degree mark.
The National Weather Service forecast, after promising low-30s Monday afternoon, called for highs on Tuesday 5-7 degrees warmer for the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys. However, Wednesday's sunrise will unveil a thin blanket of snow with lows around 20 degrees, while high temperatures barely top freezing.
Under sunny skies, southern Utahns, having begun the week with lows in the mid-20s and highs in the low- to mid-40s, looked for afternoon temperatures hovering near 50 on Tuesday, and a few degrees warmer than that on Wednesday.
The Utah Avalanche Center rated the risk for potentially deadly backcountry snowslides at "considerable" for the Logan and Moab mountains, while the remainder of the state's mountain ranges earned "moderate" avalanche risk assessments.
Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Cache, Utah and Box Elder counties have degraded "moderate" air quality grades through the midweek, as cold air aloft trapped pollution in the state's urban valleys. The Utah Division of Air Quality rated the rest of the state as "green," or healthy.
For more detail breakdowns of Utah's forecasts visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.weather.com/weather/.
Twitter: @remims