textproduct: Salt Lake City

KEY MESSAGES

- A monsoon surge will continue to bring the threat of thunderstorms with heavy rainfall, with the highest threat across southern Utah, through the weekend and into at least early next week. - A Flood Watch for flash flooding is in effect for Friday afternoon and evening for southwest and south central Utah. Additional Flood Watches may be needed for Saturday in this area.

DISCUSSION

Utah remains under a southerly flow aloft, with abundant moisture continuing to spread into the forecast area. Latest PWAT analysis shows over 1.2 inches across much of Utah, with up to 1.5 inches across far southwest Utah. The pattern will remain similar for Friday before the high pressure expands into Utah over the weekend. This will then either maintain weak flow overhead and trap moisture in place, or westerlies start to increase which would bring a very brief and slight drying trend. Southerly flow looks to return early next week, with moisture increasing once again.

Showers and thunderstorms this afternoon were efficient in producing rainfall, with pockets of over 1.5 inches of rain per radar estimates. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms will continue to linger through at least midnight, with isolated showers potentially hanging on through much of the night. For Friday, the abundant moisture will once again produce areas of heavy rain. However, southwest Utah looks to have a bit less instability compared to today, while northern Utah will see slightly greater instability. This would suggest that southern Utah will be just a slight bit less active overall, while northern Utah may be a bit more active with a greater chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Salt Lake, Tooele, and Utah Valleys. That said, the flash flood threat remains intact, especially over recent burn scars and prone areas such as slot canyons, normally dry washes, and areas of steep terrain across southern Utah. A Flood Watch remains in place for southwest and south-central Utah for Friday.

AVIATION

KSLC...Winds will remain out of the southeast overnight around 5- 10kts before transitioning to northwesterly most likely between 18- 20z. Showers and thunderstorms developing first over adjacent higher terrain after 20z and then moving into the Salt Lake Valley after 22z may produce periods of gusty and erratic outflow winds in addition to moderate-heavy rain and VIS reductions (20% chance of MVFR VIS) at the terminal. These showers will largely end by ~01- 02z.

REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING...While most storms have diminished, light showers are still lingering near KENV and near KCDC. At KENV in particular, gusty and erratic outflow winds are still possible until roughly ~08z or so. Winds will become light and terrain-driven during the overnight hours statewide if they haven't already. Showers and thunderstorms will develop first over Utah's mountains after 18z, becoming more widespread into adjacent valleys after 21z. These thunderstorms will be capable of producing gusty and erratic outflow winds, moderate-heavy rainfall, and VIS reductions down to MVFR (10% chance of IFR across southwestern UT).

FIRE WEATHER, Issued 1218 PM MDT Thu Jul 16 2026

An ongoing monsoon surge will continue to bring the threat of heavy rainfall to much of southern and portions of eastern Utah through at least the weekend, and potentially into early next week. For areas more removed from this surge across northern and west central Utah, coverage of any thunderstorms will be less across valley locations. Humidities in the 20-30% range across the northern and western valleys will further increase this weekend to around 30-40%.

SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

UT...Flood Watch from Friday afternoon through Friday evening for UTZ122>128.

WY...None.