Nice, quiet Thursday with near-perfect college football kickoff weather

SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) – Happy Thursday, Utah! College football is back in Utah Thursday evening, and the good news is that the weather is looking pretty nice across the Beehive State.

It’s another sunny day with slightly cooler temperatures across the northern half of the state and near-normal temperatures across the southern half of Utah.

Winds are light, but out of the north and west, spreading a bit of smoke and haze from the wildfires over California and Idaho. This should subside by Thursday night into Friday, as a ridge of high pressure builds in from the west.

If you’re planning on going to the Utes home opener, the weather will feature hazy sunshine to kick off with temperatures in the lower 80s, dropping into the 60s by the end of the game.

The ridge of high pressure will strengthen as it moves overhead for the end of the work week. The high-pressure ridge will kick off a decent warming trend for the Labor Day weekend. Daytime highs will bounce back to seasonal norms and increase above average, hovering there through the weekend.

High temperatures will warm into the mid-90s for the Wasatch Front this weekend, with highs in the lower 100s for our friends in Lower Washington County. Be sure that you are hydrating throughout the holiday weekend, and of course, don’t forget the sunscreen as the UV index will be in the very high range.

The positioning of the ridge of high pressure could potentially bring moisture back into Utah by the latter half of the Labor Day weekend with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in southern Utah on Friday through Labor Day, and a small chance of moisture possibly pushing into central and northern Utah Monday and Tuesday.

For the holiday weekend, cloud cover will increase along the Wasatch Front, but we will most likely stay dry. It’s still several days away, so make sure to stay tuned and rest assured, we will keep you #4Warned.

We’ll keep you up-to-date in our 4Warn Weather forecast both on-air and online, we are Good4Utah!

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.