SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4) – Happy Thursday, Utah! We have one more day of poor air quality, thanks to a stubborn ridge of high pressure. Our northern valleys will continue to deal with the strengthening inversions which will result in air quality still on a downward trend.
Both Salt Lake, Cache Valley, Davis County, and Tooele Counties are expected to fall into the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” category today while the rest of our valleys will fall into moderate. We do have a glimmer of hope with a weak front approaching the state tonight. ‘
With a southerly flow ahead of this front, temperatures will run slightly above average compared to what we’ve seen so far this week. Highs will climb into the mid to upper 40s for parts of the Wasatch Front, and the uptick in winds could help dilute the thick haze on many Northern Utah valley floors.
By the second half of our Thursday, cloud coverage also increases as a weak cold front approaches from the north. This front will move through between late tonight into early Friday morning, which will help knock down our temperatures near averages into and through the weekend.
Unfortunately, this front won’t have a lot of moisture to work with. There looks to be a slight chance we could see some light snow showers in our Northern mountains and Western Uintas on Friday. While this front looks dry, with winds increasing ahead of and behind the front it may do the trick in easing our inversions or even breaking them.
Once the front moves away though high pressure settles right back in. Hopefully, the northwesterly flow will help keep inversions at bay at least for a little while this weekend, but quiet weather looks to stick around through the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend into early next week.
Bottom line? Another day of poor air quality with above-average warmth and increasing cloud cover is expected ahead of a weak cold front.
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