Increasing heat to end the workweek

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Hey there, Utah! Happy Thursday or Happy Friday Eve! We’ve got some subtle changes coming our way to close out this workweek.

The high pressure that has kept the above-average warmth in place isn’t going anywhere, but moisture levels will continue to see a bit of a drop-off and with less moisture will come more heat. Even though there will be less moisture, isolated showers and storms can’t be completely ruled out, but like Wednesday, most storms will favor higher terrain with an even lower chance for storms to reach valleys.

By Friday, any shower activity will mainly be in eastern Utah and will be isolated in nature. Daytime highs on Thursday will be roughly 2-4 degrees hotter compared to what we saw on Wednesday with Salt Lake returning to just above the century mark while Cedar City won’t be too far away from 100 with mid to upper 90s in most of Iron County. For Friday, daytime highs will be another 2-4 degrees hotter than Thursday. On Friday, we’ll be in record territory in Salt Lake City while Park City will likely hit 90! With less moisture, skies will be mostly sunny to partly cloudy.

The increasing heat to close the week has prompted the National Weather Service to issue Excessive Heat Warnings and Watches for parts of southern Utah. In lower Washington County eastward through south-central to Lake Powell, an Excessive Heat Warning will go into effect at noon and will be in effect through Friday evening. Within the warning, daytime highs are expected to top out between 100-105 with St. George reaching 108 Thursday and could approach 110 Friday with a high of 109!

By Friday, an Excessive Heat Watch will go into effect for more parts of southern Utah. The areas included within the watch include the bulk of Juab and Millard Counties, Sanpete Valley, Sevier Valley, southwestern Utah, Zion National Park, San Rafael Swell, Canyonlands, southeast Utah, Arches/Grand Flat, and Natural Bridges. Within the watch, daytime highs will range between 100-107 as Zion National Park could reach 110. The watch for southeastern Utah will continue through Saturday as overnight lows won’t bring much relief.

NEW: On top of the Excessive Heat Warning for lower Washington County and south-central Utah Thursday & Friday, an Excessive Heat Watch has been issued for Friday from Juab County down to @ZionNPS. Within the watch highs of 100-104 expected with Zion potentially getting to 110°! pic.twitter.com/x5fhz2PKux

— Thomas Geboy (@ThomasGeboyWX) July 20, 2022

As we move into the Pioneer Day weekend, the heat will begin to ease slightly as a southerly flow starts to pump some monsoon moisture back into the state. This will lead to an uptick in the chance for showers and thunderstorms to the Beehive State with the best chance being down south.

Some models have shown some of the moisture getting into northern Utah as early as Saturday afternoon so at this point, a few showers and storms can’t be ruled out from Saturday through Monday for the Wasatch Front and Wasatch Back, but we’ll continue to fine-tune the forecast as we get closer, stay tuned!