textproduct: Salt Lake City

KEY MESSAGES, Issued 954 PM MDT Tue Jun 9 2026

- Gusty northwest winds develop areawide on Wednesday afternoon, strongest across northern and eastern Utah.

- Very dry conditions and gusty winds will result in a period of critical fire weather across portions of southeast and east- central Utah on Wednesday.

- Enhanced afternoon breezes and continued dry conditions may lead to periods of elevated to locally critical fire weather conditions Friday into the weekend.

DISCUSSION, Issued 954 PM MDT Tue Jun 9 2026

A dry cold front continues to dig southward through the region today, with gusty winds being observed this evening along and ahead of the frontal boundary across southern Utah. Winds will taper overnight areawide as the associated shortwave ejects eastward.

Calmer winds will once again be short lived as a trailing shortwave trough ejects off the back side of a parent cutoff low digging into the Northern Plains on Wednesday, yielding strong northwesterly flow across the region. As such, gusty northwesterly winds develop areawide by late morning into the early afternoon, with strongest gusts expected across east- central Utah and the Uinta Basin and the West Desert. H7 winds across these areas peak around 40-45 knots late Wednesday evening, with highest probability for gusts to exceed 30 mph occurring late Wednesday into early Thursday morning as as result. With very dry conditions still in place across east-central and southeast Utah on Wednesday, a period of critical fire weather conditions is expected to develop once again. See the Fire Weather discussion below for more datails. Winds quickly taper off across the region through the remainder of Thursday morning.

For the remainder of the week, Utah and southwest Wyoming remain wedged between longwave troughing over the Northern Plains and Great Lakes region and a strong ridge off the Pacific Northwest coast. This pattern will maintain a generally zonal flow through the weekend, though weak embedded disturbances may bring elevated afternoon winds Friday through Sunday, resulting in areas of elevated to locally critical fire weather conditions given continued critically low RH values.

Looking into early next week, the axis of the aforementioned ridge gradually shifts eastward, yielding warming temperatures in addition to continued dry conditions through the remainder of the forecast period. Highs are expected to peak around mid-next week around 5 degrees above seasonal averages.

REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING

VFR conditions under predominantly clear skies will prevail across all terminals through the overnight period, with existing cloud cover decrease after sunset. Gusty southwest winds will prevail across southern Utah through around 08Z before weakening, with drainage winds prevailing after 09-10Z. Breezy westerly winds are expected to resume mid- morning tomorrow across a majority of the area, with peak gusts expected to be between 25-30 kts, especially in southwest Wyoming and the Uinta Basin.

FIRE WEATHER

A trough responsible for the passage of a cold frontal boundary across much of the area will begin to shift east of the region. As the front washes out, winds will gradually favor a west to northwest component, to at times more terrain driven especially overnight. For Wednesday, winds will remain sufficiently gusty across southern and eastern Utah to bring areas of critical fire weather conditions given continued daytime humidity values in the low teens to single digits. Wind magnitudes and gusts will decrease further as the trough shifts further east, resulting in fire weather conditions becoming more elevated to at times locally critical where winds do become more gusty into the weekend. Humidity values will remain low with little to no precipitation chances noted. Models show potential for another largely dry and grazing type front slipping into the area in the Sunday to Monday time frame. If this materializes, anticipate winds and gusts to increase ahead of it, though confidence is low at this time.

SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

UT...Red Flag Warning until 10 PM MDT this evening for UTZ484-489-493- 494-496-498.

WY...None.