This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

On a Columbus Day weekend, it only seems appropriate that Utah's weather on Saturday and Sunday will be soleggiata, bel tempo.

As the poem says, in 1492, Cristoforo Colombo "sailed the ocean blue [in] three ships and left from Spain . . . sailed through sunshine, wind and rain." Five and quarter centuries later, Italian Americans parade, and the rest of us — except my Cherokee cousins and other Native Americans, perhaps — celebrate with pizza and maybe a litre or three of Chianti.

Along the Wasatch Front, this weekend could rival autumnal Tuscany. It might be gorgeous enough to make Leoncavallo's operatic clown, Canio, swap his scripted, bitter weeping for tears of joy: highs on Saturday and Sunday in the mid- 70s under sunny, mostly clear skies.

If the holiday's namesake visited southern Utah this weekend, he might recall a bright, fall day in the Deserto di Accona back home. The New World's contender, Utah's Dixie, will see high temperatures in the mid- to upper-80s both days, at any rate a great excuse to sip a nice cold Caffè Shakerato.

The Utah Division of Air Quality is providing additional reasons to enjoy that drink alfresco, rating air quality as "green," or healthy, throughout the weekend.

The Intermountain Allergy and Asthma website also is cooperating, listing only sagebrush and mold as "moderate" and other allergens dropping off its pollen index as of Friday.

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

Twitter: @remims