Bundle up, breathe deep: Stormy weather into Friday morning

Bundle up and breathe deep, Utah: the forecast heading toward the end of the week calls for valley rain, mountain snow and inversion- and lung-cleansing fresh air.

The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Warning through Friday at 5 a.m. for areas of the Wasatch Front, Wasatch Plateau and western Uintas. From Logan south through Ogden, Salt lake City, Provo, Nephi and Richfield to near Price, snow accumulations of 8-20 inches were expected the blanket the mountains. Strong winds across the westerly ridges were expected, too.

Rain and snow, in some places 2-5 inches deep or more, were expected in the valleys and on the benches within the warning area by early Friday morning.

A Winter Weather Advisory was in place for the southern Wasatch Front, the Sanpete and Sevier valleys and west central Utah, as well as a pocket east central Utah south of Vernal. New snow accumulations of 2-6 inches were predicted.

The Utah Avalanche Center put the Uintas under its "high" risk rating for potentially deadly snowslides, while the remainder of the state's mountains — with the exception of Moab, which was low" — earned "considerable" avalanche risk grades.

And the air out there come Friday? "Green," or healthy, statewide — a trend expected to last through the coming weekend, according to the Utah Division of Air Quality.

The Salt Lake and Tooele valleys looked for high temperatures in the mid-30s under rain- and snow-laden skies with lows in the upper-teens.

Southern Utahns also expected rainy horizons. High temperatures were to flirt with 50 degrees, while overnight lows were to hover around 30.

remims@sltrib.com

Twitter: @remims