Near-record warm temperatures hang on with slight cooling this weekend

SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — Happy Friday Eve, Utah! It’s another toasty Thursday across the state with temperatures trending a good 15° above average for the state.

We’ll continue to see mostly sunny skies and calm winds through the evening. High temps will be in the mid 80s across northern Utah, and mid 90s for SW Utah. The forecast high is 88° for Salt Lake City this afternoon, potentially tying the current record high from 1996, just like we did yesterday.

The Yellow Lake Fire is at 21% containment, which is a significant improvement from earlier this week, but still nowhere near being fully contained. It has now scorched over 20,000 acres at this point and is Utah’s largest wildfire this season. Smoke from the Yellow Lake fire is also expected to settle again overnight around Heber, Kamas, and the western Uinta Basin.

High pressure will slowly weaken as a low-pressure system moves into the West Coast this weekend. This system is expected to bring more clouds and gradually cooler temperatures, dropping about 10° by mid-next week. There’s still some uncertainty about the exact timing and strength of this low, but for now, we will keep a slight chance of showers statewide Sunday into Monday as models continue to hammer out more of the details. Looking further down the line, we continue to see a sign that true fall-like temperatures could arrive toward the end of next week. Stay tuned!

Bottom Line?! Near-record warm temperatures hang on with slight cooling this weekend

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

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