textproduct: Salt Lake City

KEY MESSAGES

- Record to near record temperatures will continue through Wednesday as the airmass trends warmer.

- A dry cold front will bring a cooling trend for Thursday into Friday, although temperatures will still remain above normal for this time of year. Temperatures will trend warmer once again for the weekend.

- The next chance for measurable precipitation across much of the region is Sunday, March 29.

DISCUSSION

High pressure will continue to build into the interior West again into Wednesday before a weak disturbance brings the next dry cold front into Utah for Thursday. Temperatures will continue to trend warmer through Wednesday as a result, with many sites again expected to see daily record temperatures being broken during this time (and some sites may even see new monthly record max temperatures, especially on Wednesday). The NBM has a 58% chance of SLC reaching 85F on Wednesday, which would be a new monthly max.

On Thursday, models have the closed low that is currently spinning off the Baja coast lifting across southern Utah. This will have little impact on the area as moisture will be very limited. More notable for Thursday will be the dry cold front emanating from the next low-amplitude trough rippling across the PacNW and Idaho. This front currently looks to move into northern Utah Thursday morning and into southern Utah by early Thursday evening. Since the prefrontal airmass will be so abnormally warm, the cold front, much like the previous one this past weekend, will fail to bring temperatures down even close to climatological normals.

A ridge will rebuild over the weekend, resulting in another warming trend. However, a shortwave disturbance embedded in the southwesterlies along the western periphery of the ridge is expected to lift into Utah, bringing with it a surge of moisture. This looks to bring a round of showers to the area on Sunday, although the warm airmass will maintain high snow levels. Thereafter, the mean ridge position looks to settle east of Utah for next week, opening the door for a mean trough near the West Coast to potentially bring increased precipitation chances to the forecast area next week.

REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING

Light, terrain-driven winds will persist through the overnight hours, becoming breezy out of the west after 17z, primarily across southwest WY and higher terrain of UT. VFR conditions will prevail with a few passing high clouds.

SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

UT...None. WY...Fire Weather Watch from Wednesday afternoon through Wednesday evening for WYZ277.