This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"Excessive Heat Warning." There's your midweek Utah's forecast, in a sizzling hot nutshell.
As 19th century English poet Robert Southey observed, "It is with words as with sunbeams; the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn."
Indeed, Utah, north to south, is going to going to feel the burn. It is time to stay indoors, if outside to flee to the shade, or at least don a wide-brimmed hat, light-colored, and brief clothing, slather on the sunscreen lotion — and drink lots of water.
Southwestern Utah's St. George, where thermometers are soaring well into near-record setting triple digit temperatures, and southcentral Utah extending through the San Rafael Swell to Zion National Park and the Glen Canyon Recreation Area, were under the heat warning through 8 p.m. Tuesday.
St. George, forecast to hit 111 degrees by late Tuesday (1 degree off a 1936 record), also expects to come within 2 degrees of the 112-degree record for Wednesday's date, and Thursday's predicted 109 will be within 1 degree of setting a daytime record.
Utah's Dixie has sunny, clear skies ahead, too, with evening breezes of 10-20 mph. Even overnight lows, in the upper-60s to low-70s, will be warm.
The Wasatch Front is only a little cooler, with daytime highs in the mid- to upper-90s and overnight lows in the mid- to upper-60s. Sunny and clear skies ruled on Tuesday, with some scattered clouds moving into the region through the midweek.
Salt Lake City's Tuesday high, forecast at 96, was well below a 1961 record of 104 degrees. Wednesday's expected 97, as well as Thursday's 98, also fall a few degrees shy of being record breakers.
Excessive heat is not friend to the state's air pollution woes. The Utah Division of Air Quality rated all monitoring districts — with the exception of a "green" Washington County — in the "yellow," or moderate category for particulates in the air into the midweek.
The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website listed grass as "very high," mold "high," and plantain as "moderate" on its pollen index as of Tuesday.
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather/.
Twitter: @remims