Active skies with potential for a few strong storms

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Happy Thursday, happy Friday eve, and May the 4th be with you, Utah! Today brings cooler temperatures compared to yesterday with scattered showers and storms with a low-end risk for severe storms in spots.

Today will bring widespread scattered showers and thunderstorms to the Beehive State today. The best chance will be from the afternoon into the evening with storms favoring the northern half of Utah and southwestern Utah, but there will be at least a slight chance in southeastern Utah. In northwestern Utah, a few strong to even severe storms can’t be completely ruled out. If we do see storms become severe the main concern would be strong winds and hail. 

Outside of any wet weather today skies will be partly to mostly cloudy with daytime highs that will range roughly 5-15 degrees cooler than yesterday. Winds will also be strong across the state with a chance we see widespread gusts over 30 mph with the potential for some 40-50mph gusts in southern Utah, especially in southeastern Utah. 

As we go into tonight the weather will calm a bit as showers and storms begin to fade. During the overnight it will turn a bit cooler than recent nights as we look at mostly dry conditions. Any calm conditions will be short-lived as by tomorrow afternoon we’re back to seeing scattered showers and thunderstorms. There won’t be quite as many showers compared to today, but it will still be a decent chance that one finds you. Daytime highs will also ease down a bit more for most with highs falling near or just below our seasonal averages with mainly 50 and 60s. 

Our active pattern isn’t going away anytime soon. Through the weekend into early next week, we’ll hold onto the potential for additional showers each day as daytime highs stay fairly consistent. This will result in the Wasatch Front seeing highs in the 60s with overnight lows in the 40s, which is exactly where we should be for this time of year. While we’ll hold onto the shower chance, it won’t be non-stop weather and showers will continue to be generally scattered in nature so some will see more than others. In southern Utah the chance will go down a bit over the weekend resulting in mostly dry skies past Saturday as temperatures begin to moderate a bit. 

FLOOD ALERTS 

Multiple flood watches, warnings, and advisories are currently in place. Rivers currently under flood warnings are the South Fork of the Ogden River near Huntsville and the Dolores River to the confluence of the Colorado River are in effect until further notice, the Sevier River near Hatch until early Saturday night, and Garden City to the Idaho Stateline through this afternoon. 

We also have a Flood Watch for Cache Valley near Hyrum Reservoir through Friday morning. A flood watch also remains in effect for the Lower Weber River near Plain City through Friday. The flood watch for Cache Valley, mainly below Hyrum Dam continues through Friday morning. A flood advisory remains in effect for the Green River near Jensen through this weekend. 

Even for rivers, streams, and creeks not in alerts, we will likely see high for most spots through the end of the workweek. Many waterways will recede by next week, but we have a long runoff season ahead, so dangerous conditions will continue and caution around waterways is critical. One thing to keep in mind is that depending on how much wet weather we see; it could result in levels staying higher than usual even with the cooler temperatures. We’ll continue to keep you posted on all watches, warnings, and advisories.