This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Valley rain, mountain snow; hurricane-force winds above, gusts below.
There's your midweek forecast for northern Utah, where the National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Warning Tuesday through 4 a.m. Wednesday. From Logan running south through Ogden, Salt Lake City, Provo, Nephi, Price and Richfield, 8-16 inches of snow was predicted for elevations 6,500 feet and above.
A cycle of rain showers, propelled by winds of 30 mph, will lash the region's valleys. That may be a wet and miserable combination, but consider that heavy snows in the Wasatch Range will come with 60 mph winds that will howl past 80 mph along the high ridgelines.
Southeastern Utah's Las Sal and Abajo mountain ranges were targeted in a Winter Weather Advisory in effect through midnight Tuesday. Up to a foot of new snow was predicted, along with winds gusting to 45 mph.
The Utah Avalanche Center began Tuesday with "high" risk ratings for the Salt Lake and Uinta mountains, "considerable" for the Logan and Ogden districts, "moderate" for the Skyline peaks, and "low" for the Moab and Abajo mountains.
The Salt Lake and Tooele valleys, pegged at highs in the low-50s Tuesday and again Wednesday, looked for mid-50s on Thursday.
If not for the wind — turning relatively balmy temperatures either bracing or debilitating, depending on whether you gambol toward the sanguine or lurch into melancholy — the midweek forecast could almost be a Gene Kelly, dancing-in-the-rain-moment.
Or like most of southern Utah at the midweek, you could just skip the rain and go with breezy, spring-like temperatures. Utah's Dixie, forecast to hit 60 degrees Tuesday, will surge to the mid-60s under partly cloudy skies on Wednesday and reach the upper-60s on Thursday.
Still, let's not diss the wind too much. Along with all that rain and snow, a rambunctious atmosphere is a good atmosphere for the Utah Division of Air Quality. "Green," or healthy breathing conditions ruled all areas of the state through the next couple days, except Duchesne and Uintah counties (ranging from "orange," or unhealthy for sensitive groups to "yellow," or moderate for particulates in the air).
For more extensive forecast information visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/news/weather/.
Twitter: @remims