This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Spring — when, Charlie Chaplin declared, "birds are calling, skunks are crawling . . . whales are churning, worms are squirming, wagging their tails for love!" — will be here when most Utahns awaken Wednesday.
Officially, the Mountain time zone ushers in the Vernal Equinox, and the official end of winter, at 5:02 a.m. The National Weather Service is serving up a suitable forecast, too: Partly cloudy skies, a little morning rain and high temperatures Wednesday in the mid-50s for northern Utah.
Southern Utahns can ditch the umbrellas altogether, though. Partially cloudy skies are on the climatological menu for Utah's Dixie Wednesday, but no precipitation is forecast as daytime highs soar into the mid- to upper-70s.
North to south, those forecasts are near mirror images of Tuesday's weather expectations.
The Utah Division of Air Quality added its own springtime blessings with "Green," or healthy breathability grades statewide for the mid-week period.
The Utah Avalanche Center, meanwhile, was giving late-season skiers some mixed news: the ratings for backcountry mountain snow slide risks as of Tuesday morning had been downgraded to low for Ogden, Salt Lake City and Provo. Avalanche danger remained at "moderate" for the mountains of Logan and the Uintas and Skyline districts.
Salt Lake City's high temperature Wednesday was pegged at 56 degrees, up a tick from Tuesday's forecast; Ogden looked for 52 degrees both days; Provo 60 and 58; Logan 43 and 44; Wendover 58 and 55; Duchesne 55 and 52; Cedar City 65 and 60; St. George 77 and 76; and Moab 69 and 65 degrees.
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