This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Here's your Utah forecast riddle: Quasimodo, wearing a tank top, holds on to his beret come gusty midweek evenings.
Answer: On "Hump Day" Wednesday, and again on Thursday, the Beehive State will sizzle under sunny skies before evening clouds and 10-20 mph winds offer some cooling relief.
OK, not much of a bell-ringing forecast there. However, it is a typical August weather with high temperatures approaching 90 degrees along the Wasatch Front both Wednesday and Thursday, and topping triple digits in southern Utah over the same period.
What is not typical for late summer in Utah is the haze obscuring much of the state's mountain and high desert vistas. Once again, smoke from California's wildfires is to blame for that.
The Utah Division of Air Quality is grading Box Elder and Cache counties as "orange," or unhealthy for prolonged outdoor activity, and the remainder of the state — with the sole exception of a "green," healthy Carbon County — as "yellow," or compromised for air quality through the end of the work week.
If the smoke doesn't trigger a cough or two, the region's plant-life offers no sanctuary, either. The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website rated chenopods "very high," sagebrush as "high," and mold, ragweed and grass as "moderate" on its pollen index as of Wednesday.
For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/weather.
Twitter: @remims