This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It's been so hot, Utahns can be excused their yearnings for cooling rain. Still, be careful what you wish, or pray for.
After days of near triple-digit temperatures along the Wasatch Front and 100 degrees or more in southern Utah, thunderstorms and showers punctuate the midweek forecast. Temperatures were to retreat into the low-90s along the Wasatch Front on Thursday, down a few degrees from Wednesday's forecast.
The forests and grasslands of northern Utah should welcome precipitation, but it was a different story for central and southern Utah's more rugged and drier high deserts and redrock region. The National Weather Service worried about the potential for isolated flash flooding, especially in slot canyons, usually dry washes and slopes recently denuded by wildfires.
A Flash Flood Warning was in effect from 3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday night for the southeastern corner of the state, from Green River running south through Moab and Bluff.
Southern Utahns looked for highs in the mid- to upper-90s on an occasionally wet Thursday, down from 100-degree readings forecast for Wednesday.
The Utah Division of Air Quality assigned "yellow," or compromised air quality grades statewide, with the exception of Cache, Carbon, Duchesne, Uintah and Washington counties, which were graded a healthy "green."
The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website listed only mold at "high" on its pollen index, while other allergens were graded as "low" on Wednesday.
For more extensive forecast information, check out the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/weather.
Twitter: @remims Know before you go! •
Check the flash flood potential rating for the national parks of southern Utah at http://goo.gl/p9sLsc