textproduct: Salt Lake City

KEY MESSAGES

- High pressure will bring historically warm weather for March by the middle of the upcoming week, with high temperatures approaching 30F above seasonal normals through the first part of the upcoming weekend.

DISCUSSION

Utah and southwest Wyoming remain under a northwest flow this evening on the front side of a broad ridge centered off the California coast. Just enough moisture is lingering to produce some high and mid-level cloudiness over northern portions of the forecast area, with generally tranquil conditions areawide.

The ridge is already bringing a warming trend in temperatures, with highs today having averaged 5-10F above seasonal normals, with the largest deviation over southern Utah. The ridge will track slowly but steadily east through midweek, with the ridge axis reaching the Desert Southwest Wednesday afternoon, where it will park for a few days. A ridge this large and strong is more typical of summer than spring, and thus temperatures for the middle to latter part of the week will be more typical of early June than mid-March, with high temperatures running 25F to 30F above seasonal normals. It is all but certain that daily high temperature records will be broken, with a high likelihood of breaking all time temperature records for the month as well as seeing the earliest 80F on record for Salt Lake City, and the earliest 90F on record for St. George.

The ridge is finally expected to track east of the area over the weekend, with some relief from the historically warm temperatures coming by Sunday. Still, though, maxes are still most likely to run 10-15F above normal for this time of year. Dry conditions are anticipated for the next week, and likely beyond that.

REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING

VFR conditions and diurnal winds are expected through the TAF period.

SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

UT...None. WY...None.