This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
It's mid-May of a northern Utah spring that just days ago saw temperatures flirting with 90 degrees, but Wednesday morning dawned with snow — and not just in the mountains.
Surprise, surprise, surprise. The National Weather Service could have hired Gomer Pyle to share this Wasatch Front forecast: Thursday, like Wednesday, begins with scattered snow showers extending into the valleys, followed by afternoon rain. Daytime highs will reach the mid-50s Thursday, 5-7 degrees warmer than Wednesday.
The Salt Lake and Tooele valleys will reach the low-60s in Friday, with a 20 percent chance of afternoon rain showers.
Much of the snow hit just before sunrise, giving plows and sand trucks the chance to prep mountain passes before the high tide of Wednesday morning's commute. As of 7:30 a.m., the Utah Highway Patrol had dispatched troopers to 18 accidents.
All the new precipitation won't help conditions along Utah County's Provo River. The river remained under a Flood Watch through 10 a.m. Friday as releases from the at-capacity, Deer Creek Reservoir continued.
Even southern Utahns will feel the effects of the rare mid-spring cold front that moved into the region. After isolated rain showers and highs in the upper-60s Wednesday, Utah's Dixie looked to 70 degrees and partly cloudy, breezy conditions on Thursday.
Friday will find the redrocks and high deserts once more basking in temperatures around 80 degrees, with partly cloudy morning horizons turning sunny by afternoon.
Unsettled, wet weather always is the friend of the Utah Division of Air Quality, which awarded "green," or healthy grades for monitoring stations statewide through the end of this week.
The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website listed mulberry as "very high," mold "high" and oak "moderate" on its pollen index as of Wednesday.
For more extensive forecast information visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/news/weather/.
Twitter: @remims