This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's forecast calls for a snowstorm for the official start of winter, and a modest blanket of white just in time for Christmas.
The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for the Wasatch Front stretching from northern to central Utah. Forecasters predicted a couple inches of snow for valley locations and up to 6 inches in the mountains.
The storm, arriving with the beginning of the winter solstice, was expected to stretch into early Thursday morning from Logan running south to Brigham City, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Tooele, Park City and Provo to Nephi.
Northern Utah's high temperatures were expected to range in the upper-20s to low 30s, with overnight lows in the single-digits to upper-teens. In southern Utah, the mercury was expected to peak around 30 to near 40 degrees, with lows in the 20s.
With the storm system already stirring northern Utah with snow flurries as dawn approached Wednesday, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality issued "green" or healthy rankings for all air quality monitoring districts of the state.
The Utah Avalanche Center, meanwhile, was flying "yellow" or moderate-risk flags for potentially dangerous snow slides in Ogden, Salt Lake City, the western Uintas, Provo and Moab, while Logan earned a "green" or low risk rating.
Salt Lake City expected highs of 34 and 29 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, sandwiching an overnight low of 20; Ogden was forecast for 32, 38 and 19 degrees, respectively; Provo 35, 30 and 19; Logan 28, 23 and 12; Wendover 34, 28 and 18; Duchesne 29, 21 and 11; Cedar City 35, 28 and 9; St. George 55, 44 and 28; and Moab 38, 33 and 20 degrees.