Critical fire threat holds through the week

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Happy Tuesday, Utah! Daytime highs will be right on the nose for where we should be this time of year in the north and a couple degrees above average in the south. Temperatures will climb into the low to mid 90s for most valleys, mid 80s for higher terrain, and low to mid 100s for the typical hot spots. Mostly sunny skies are expected, but periods of smoke will make for poor air quality. 

Smoke from wildfires in southern California is moving through the West Desert in southern and central Utah and will reach the north by the evening. Smoke from more local wildfires will continue to push through eastern Utah throughout the day. Air quality will be in the moderate category for most of the day, but parts of the Wasatch Front could see it become unhealthy for sensitive groups at times. 

There isn’t much variation in weather conditions or temperatures over the next few days. Temperatures bump up a few degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing the Wasatch Front to the upper 90s and possibly triple digits. Then by Friday and Saturday we will cool down by about 10 degrees with highs in the low 90s and upper 80s for northern valleys. Southern Utah temperatures won’t change quite as much.

Dry air and breezy conditions are bad news for our wildfire threat. Most of the state is under a critical fire threat today through Friday and possibly longer. Red Flag Warnings are in place for southern, central, and eastern Utah until Thursday at 9 pm, but like we’ve seen the past few days, the alerts could very well be extended further. Winds really pick up as we get into Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which will further exacerbate fire conditions

There isn’t much relief from the dry weather in sight, but we’ll keep you updated on the latest developments in our 4Warn Weather forecast both on-air and online we are Good4Utah!