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Utah’s temperatures are back to normal — but it’s really dry

(The Salt Lake Tribune) The National Weather Service forecast says temperatures will be in the 50s in Salt Lake this week, with no precipitation. It's also supposed to be dry in St. George, where it hasn't rained since June 18.

  | Nov. 4, 2019, 6:50 p.m.
| Updated: 11:49 p.m.

Remember last week when Utah was suffering through record-low temperatures and it snowed? That’s not going to happen again anytime soon.

According to the National Weather Service, the Salt Lake City area will see daytime highs in the low- to mid-50s and overnight lows in the mid-30s — above freezing — through Sunday.

That was definitely not the case last week, when the temperature in Salt Lake City dipped to a frigid 14 degrees early Wednesday morning, setting a record not just for that date but for the entire month of October. (The previous low, in records that go back to 1874, was 16 in 1971.)

Not only was it cold, but there was snow. Not a lot of accumulation in the valleys, but more than a foot at some higher elevations.

A return to more seasonable temperatures isn’t the only change this week. According to the NWS, a “persistent northwest flow aloft” will keep things dry for the next 7 to 10 days. There’s absolutely no precipitation in the forecast through the upcoming weekend.

And that’s also true in southern Utah. The forecast for St. George sounds great — sunny and clear with highs in the mid-70s and lows in the mid-40s — but the area is still in the grips of a record-breaking drought. As of Monday, St. George has gone 140 days without any measurable precipitation, smashing the previous record of 121 days, set in 1929.

Ironically, the long drought followed record-breaking rain earlier this year. From March-May, St. George received 6.46 inches of rain, more than three times the average amount — 1.94 inches — it normally sees during those three months. It broke the previous record of 5.7 inches set in 1958.

A storm that will “tap some moisture ahead of it” is headed from California through Arizona late Wednesday into Thursday, but the forecasting models indicate it will “remain too far south to impact Utah, other than to bring some high clouds to the south.” At the same time, a weak disturbance will “drop into Utah from the north-northwest," but it will “bring little more than some clouds” and a couple of degrees cooling to northern and central Utah.

For more weather news, visit www.sltrib.com/weather.