Record hot and record cold — Utah's had it all within days

If Utah's weather is anything, it is fickle. If you don't care for today's offering, just wait until tomorrow when it might be the total opposite.

Take, for example, the first two days of September in Bountiful.

At the Val Verda weather station in Bountiful on Monday morning, an all-time record high minimum temperature was set for Sept. 1 — 62 degrees. Move 24 hours later to Sept. 2 and a record low minimum temperature of 42 degrees was established.

And last Saturday the mercury sizzled to 99 degrees at the Salt Lake City International Airport, just one degree short of the record for the date. Then on Sunday it cooled to 89 degrees, followed by a Labor Day reading of just 63 degrees. That's a 36-degree drop in two days.

How's that for a flip-fop?

But don't yet count autumn as having arrived early. The Salt Lake office of the National Weather Service has forecast that come Saturday, the Wasatch Front will be back to mid-80s temperatures and next Monday could reach a high of 87 degrees.

Salt Lake City's latest-ever 100 degree temperature came on Sept. 8, 1979. With the current weather pattern, there likely won't be any more century readings this year. (Sept. 30, 1987, is the latest-ever 90 degree day at the Salt Lake airport.)

After an expected high of 72 on Tuesday, Salt Lake will gradually begin to warm up again. Temperatures are expected to reach 76 today and 78 on Thursday.

Today's early morning low in Salt Lake City will rise to 54 degrees, after a chilly 47 on Tuesday morning. The overnight low should increase to 55 degrees by Thursday.

There's no moisture on the horizon, either — until at least after early next week.

If you thought August was dry, it was. The airport received just 0.05 of an inch of moisture during the month. The normal is 0.76 of an inch. The Labor Day storm dropped 0.14 of an inch.

Since Jan. 1, Salt Lake has received 7.49 inches of moisture. It averages 11 inches a year.

Although Salt Lake didn't set any weather records the past few days, Provo-BYU tied its all-time high for Aug. 30 at 98 degrees. Tooele at 97 and Laketown at 90 degrees also tied record highs for that date.

Delta set a record of 100 degrees on Aug. 30, eclipsing the 1954 mark by one degree.

The Bryce Canyon Airport set a record high on Aug. 29 at 85 degrees and the Hite Ranger Station near Lake Powell reached a record 106 that same day.

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E-mail: lynn@desnews.com

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