In what could be one of the last warm days of fall, Saturday will bring clear, sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-70s to the Wasatch Front.
It will be a day that the late Lithuanian poet Eugenijus Matuzevicius could treasure for “autumn warmth . . . a last reward I wish to save and leave to trees and window panes, to winter crops and to your heart.”
After Friday’s low-60s and the forecast for upper-50s on a breezy, partly cloudy Sunday, Saturday will indeed make memories to sustain northern Utahns’ souls in the darker, colder days ahead.
Then, as Matuzevicius wrote, you may sigh and smile, holding “these few yellow maple leaves . . . like crumbs of sunshine.”
But not right now. Now is time to celebrate a walk along forested paths, hiking the cooler desert trails, and witnessing the glory of color bursting from mountain slopes and meadows.
If that is true of northern Utah, it is meteorological gospel for the state’s southern redrocks, arroyos and high deserts. Saturday promises temperatures in the mid-80s for Utah’s Dixie, up a few degrees from Friday’s forecast. Sunday, too, will see highs well into the 80s for the St. George area.
Still need a reason to walk, bike or drive outdoors this weekend? Well, you can fill your lungs with clean air on those outings, according to the Utah Division of Air Quality. The pollution-monitoring agency predicts “green,” or healthy air quality statewide this weekend.