It’s not been this cold in northern Utah since late last winter, a chilly trend which will rule the midweek as overnight lows plunge to well below freezing.
In the predawn hours of Tuesday, Salt Lake City thermometers retreated to 27 degrees, Provo fell to 25 and Ogden slid to 22. But it was far colder elsewhere along the Wasatch Front, with Park City and Logan shivering at 15 and 16 degrees, respectively; Heber City was at 10, and Randolph recorded an icy 5 degrees.
The last time the region was this frigid was in March, the National Weather Service says.
But no time for laments, for this is how it goes as fall nods off and ice and snow nears.
“You can’t plead with autumn,” Russian satirist Yevgeny Zamyatin once advised, judging the season as a time when “midnight wind stalked through the woods . . . swept everything away for the approaching winter, whirled the leaves.”
Wednesday brings lows in the mid- to upper-20s before the sun rises in the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys. Afternoon highs will struggle to reach the mid-40s — an echo of Tuesday’s forecast.
While northern Utahns dig out the parkas, clear their sprinkler systems and check the insulation on exposed water pipes, their southern Utah cousins bask in daytime highs in the 70s.
Skies will be mostly sunny and clear through the midweek, with overnight lows in the low- to mid- 40s in the St. George and Zion National Park areas.
The Utah Division of Air Quality forecasts “green,” or healthy conditions statewide through Wednesday.