Warm and dry September start in Northern Utah with storms creeping into Southern Utah today

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Happy Wednesday, Utah! The start to our September has been warm and dry and that continues for our first Wednesday of the month. High pressure overhead is allowing for temperatures to remain above average again today with temperatures running five to eight degrees above normal. We will see low to mid 90s along the Wasatch Front today, with low 90s throughout central Utah and low to mid 90s even for Southern Utah. While we will see fairly clear skies for the northern half of Utah, cloud cover will curb daytime heating in Southern Utah.

Monsoon moisture began to increase in the southwest corner of the state Tuesday, and today we see mostly cloudy skies as it continues to ease into southern Utah underneath our high-pressure ridge. As a result, isolated thunderstorms and showers are expected for portions of Washington, Iron, Kane, Garfield and Beaver counties. These storms will be initially high based with gusty outflow winds and lightning, but as moisture increases the chance for brief, heavy downpours exist today. Due to this potential, the flash flood threat has been upgraded to “possible” for Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Red Cliffs/Snow Canyon and Grand Staircase. Flash flood threats will likely expand and amplify as the week goes on, so make sure you plan recreation responsibly and stay out of slot canyons and low-lying areas if there’s storm potential. 

Heading into Thursday, we will see monsoon moisture surge further north and bring cloud cover to Northern Utah, and storm potential to both Central and Southern Utah. Our excessive rainfall threat has been upgraded to a marginal risk for parts of SW Utah Wednesday and central and Southern Utah Thursday. A “marginal” risk calls for a 5 percent chance of flooding in a 25-mile radius for areas impacted. Slow moving storms with heavy rain could cause some issues for the latter half of the work week and into the beginning of the weekend. 

With more cloud cover, temperatures will ease statewide. While Northern Utah deals with low to mid 90s through Friday, daytime highs are expected to fall into the low 80s for the weekend. Washington County remains below average with low 90s for the rest of the work week and upper 80s for the weekend with the chance of storms. Stay tuned!

We’ll keep you posted on the latest updates in our 4Warn Weather forecast both on-air and online, we are Good4Utah!