SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Happy Thanksgiving Tuesday, Utah!  High pressure has gained control of the weather setup over the Beehive State.

The bottom line? It’s Thanksgiving week, and Thanksgiving Tuesday brings ideal travel conditions with a calm and cool stretch of weather before Thanksgiving changes!

We have quiet conditions thanks to that high pressure which means today and leading up to Thanksgiving, you can expect a mix of sun and clouds each day while temperatures slightly warm and rebound close to or slightly above seasonal norms. Daytime highs throughout the state will climb into the 40s and 50s with Salt Lake just a few degrees shy of the average of 48 we typically see this time of year. Overnights will remain on the chilly side of things with 20s and 30s for most, and the capital city falling below the freezing point once again.

While the high pressure keeps wet weather away, we do see inversion conditions anxious to set up in some of the valleys in Northern Utah. Inversion traps cold air on the valley floor and allows for dust and pollution to collect and cause a change in our air quality. Air quality is expected to decline in places like Cache, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties. The Department of Environmental Quality is calling for moderate air in these areas through Wednesday, and you may notice building haze. These conditions will be short-lived though, with changes on Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow brings in conditions similar to today, but we will be slightly warmer, and winds will increase ahead of a holiday storm!

By Thanksgiving, active skies return as a storm makes its way to Utah. It’s becoming increasingly likely that a storm system will dive in from the Pacific Northwest between Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. This storm looks to bring a good chance of wet weather to the northern two-thirds of the state with the most likely timeframe at this point coming late Thursday into early Friday. 

Given the temperatures ahead of the cold front, this will likely start as valley rain and mountain snow, but colder air will move in quickly and there is potential we could see valley rain become snow as the storm moves through.

Snow showers are expected Friday, but there are still a lot of details to be ironed out with this storm so stay tuned! Either way, some of, if not the coldest air of the season will move in, setting the table for what will be a cold and sunny weekend after Thanksgiving! 

With Utah’s 4Warn Forecast both on-air and online you can stay on top of all the weather changes the Beehive State has to offer! We are Good4Utah!