There's a weather change coming that will bring cold and snow while scrubbing Utah's urban valleys of accumulating smog.
The National Weather Service issued a Special Weather Statement for the western two-thirds of the state beginning Friday and stretching into early next week, predicting a slow-moving cold front would begin settling over the region through the weekend.
By Tuesday, significant snowfall is expected in the mountains and valleys of northern Utah. Forecasters also issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook for eastern Utah beginning Friday and running into the middle of next week as low clouds and fog persisted, making travel a bit dicey.
Meantime, urban residents will have to bear with diminished air quality until the storms arrive. The Utah Division of Air Quality rated most of the state's regions at "moderate" for breathability, with only Washington, Duchesne and Uintah counties earning "green," or healthy air quality grades.
The Utah Avalanche Center issued "moderate" risk ratings for potentially dangerous snow slides in the Logan, Uintas and Skyline districts; the mountains above Ogden, Salt Lake City and Provo received "low" grades.
Under hazy skies, the Wasatch Front looked for a Saturday temperature range from the low- to mid-30s overnight to upper-50s for daytime highs, mirroring Friday's forecast.
Southern Utahns expected partly cloudy skies to usher in daytime highs in the low-60s after overnight lows in the low- to mid- 30s.
For a more extensive forecast breakdown visit the Tribune's weather page: sltrib.com/weather.
remims@sltrib.com
Twitter: @remims