This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Yes, Virginia. There will be snow for Christmas along the Wasatch Front.

Oh, some of your little friends have their doubts. But Virginia, your little friends are wrong: if you see it in The Salt Lake Tribune, it's so.

Our friends at the National Weather Service have issued a Winter Storm Warning beginning early Christmas morning and extending into Friday afternoon. The region's valleys expect 3-6 inches of fresh snow, the benches 5-10 inches and the mountains will get up to 2 feet.

So, Virginia, don't be affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. Of course there will be snow. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no snow on Christmas. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.

No Snow! Thank God and meteorologists that there will, once more, be snow falling outside as you open your presents under the tree. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10 thousand years from now, snow will continue to make glad the hearts of skiers and snowboarders looking for gifts of fresh powder, moguls and some serious air.

Not only will there be snow on Christmas Day, but it will linger like yuletide in the hearts of humankind through the rest of the week.

But with the cheer comes caution. Forecasters have a Backcountry Avalanche Warning in place into Friday for the Wasatch, Bear River and western Uinta ranges as well as the state's central mountains. In general, the Utah Avalanche Center warns that the risk for potentially deadly snowslides on mountain slopes as of Wednesday was "considerable."

Thursday's forecast for the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys calls for daytime highs in the low-30s, with overnight lows in the teens.

Southern Utahns expected to dodge the snow, with daytime highs in the low-40s and overnight lows in the low- to mid-20s.

Storms bring a lot of atmospheric stirring, itself a gift for air quality along Utah's polluted urban valleys. The Utah Division of Air Quality graded monitoring stations statewide as "green," or healthy, through the remainder of this holiday week.

For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page at: http://www.sltrib.com/weather.

Twitter: @remims