There’s lots of rain in the forecast for Utah — and some snow

There’s plenty of precipitation in the forecast for Utah over the next few days — both rain and snow. And the National Weather Service cautions that there could be flash flooding.

Showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected Thursday afternoon and evening across northern and central Utah. The strongest will bring gusty winds, occasional lightning and brief, heavy rainfall. There’s a 30% chance of rain in Salt Lake City on Thursday, and a 50% chance on Thursday night.

A second storm system will bring more showers and thunderstorms to much of Utah on Friday and Saturday. There could be heavy rainfall in some areas, resulting in “isolated incidents of flash flooding” in slot canyons, normally dry washes, along small streams and near recent burn scars in southern Utah, according to the weather service.

On Thursday, flash floods are “possible” at two of Utah’s national parks — Capitol Reef and the San Rafael Swell — according to the weather service. And on Friday, flash flooding remains “possible” at those two sites as well as Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Glen Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Natural Bridges, Grand Gulch and Zion.

There’s a 90% chance of rain in the Salt Lake City area on Friday, and a 70% chance on Saturday.

The storm will bring much colder air on Friday night, dropping snow levels to near 7,500 feet on Saturday. Snow accumulation is expected above 8,000 feet in northern Utah.

Colder temperatures will continue through the first half of next week, with snow on the benches in northern Utah overnight freezes in most of the state’s valleys, with the exception of the St. George area.

After high temperatures in the mid-60s on Thursday in Salt Lake City, the forecast high is 60 on Friday, 49 on Saturday and 53 on Sunday. And it’s expected to get even colder next week — 47 on Monday, 39 on Tuesday and 40 on Wednesday, with snow showers possible.

In St. George and southwestern Utah, there’s a 20% chance of rain on Thursday night, a 40-70% chance on Friday, and a 20-30% chance on Saturday. Temperatures will fall from the low 80s on Thursday to the low to mid-70s Friday-Monday — and then the upper 50s to lower 60s on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a chance of more showers.

Fans headed for the BYU-Boise State game in Provo on Saturday should be prepared to get wet. There’s a 60-70% chance of rain when the game kicks off at 1:30 p.m. — and a 10-20% chance of thunder — and temperatures of about 50 are expected. Temperatures will inch up to the mid-50s during the game, and the chance of rain will inch down to 30-50%.

By the way, it’ll be in the upper 50s-low 60s in Los Angeles during the University of Utah-Southern California game, which kicks off at 6 p.m. The chance of rain is less than 10%.