Enjoy those mild temperatures, as a cold front is coming

The next two days will see temperatures in the low 80s for northern Utah — actually 10 to 20 degrees above what is considered “normal” for this time of year. Enjoy it while you can.

On Thursday, Mother Nature has whipped up a concoction of rain in the valleys, snow in the mountains, and warnings about the possibility of a hard freeze in parts of central Utah and Cedar City, all to remind us that summer is over and it’s time for winter-like weather to make its move.

The highs on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be in the low 80s, while the lows will hover in the mid-50s. On Thursday, however, the high temperature is only expected to climb to the 50s, with lows tumbling into the 30s.

“It’s just been an extended summer; that is what it has felt like so far,” said David Church, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.

The 30-degree drop in temperatures will sting, but only because most all of September and into this month has been abnormally warm and dry, Church added.

“We haven’t been cold yet, so we’re not really used to it,“ he said. “We’ve haven’t even really had too many days with highs in the 60s so to go all the way down to our high of 52 on Friday will feel a lot worse, just because we have not seen temperatures that cold yet this year.”

Church described it as a strong cold front that will bring heavy snowfall to the mountains and valley rain. It hits Thursday, continues into Friday and may linger into Saturday, he added.

While the Wasatch Front won’t get down to freezing, the lows will be in the mid to high 30s. Elsewhere in the state, there is risk of freezing or the season’s first hard freeze, so sensitive crops or plants should be taken care of accordingly.

Church also warned that people taking advantage of the mild temperatures and who are headed out for some backcountry hiking or other outdoor activities at the higher elevations need to be aware that the conditions will change and to not take any risks.

The moisture should help with efforts to quell the Yellow Lake Fire, which has burned more than 30,000 acres and led to evacuations of campgrounds and recreational cabins in Duchesne County.

Other evacuations could be invoked depending on the conditions.

Church said the cold front will move out and gradually temperatures will ease into milder conditions, with temperatures in the high 60s and even the low to mid 70s by Tuesday.

But, he stressed, the 80s — at least for this year — are a thing of the past.

“I don’t think there’s much chance of us getting back to the 80s,” he said.