Utah forecast: Saints preserve us! Here comes a wet, wild storm

Along with the green beer, a wild, wet and windy start to the new week was on tap for Utah as St. Patrick's Day ushered in a new week.

Sure, 'tis like Ma Nature unleashed 'er banshees upon us, saints preserve us! A Winter Weather Advisory was in place for northern Utah's Wasatch Range both north and south of Interstate 80 through 9 p.m. Monday.

The advisory area encompassed an area from Logan south to Salt Lake City, Provo and Nephi, and in northeastern Utah from Woodruff and Randolph and Alta and Brighton to the Wyoming border.

Up to 4 inches of snow, propelled by winds of 30-40 mph, with gusts topping 60 mph, was predicted. A mix of rain and snow was on the way for the region's valley locations, the National Weather Service said.

The NWS also issued a High Wind Warning for several pockets of Utah, ranging from the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys and western desert to the southern Wasatch Front. That warning, in effect through 9 p.m. Monday, noted that I-80 in particular would experience potentially dangerous crosswinds; extra caution was urged for high-profile vehicles, such as semi-trailer rigs and RVs.

Pockets of Carbon County and the Moab area also falling within the wind warning.

Along the Wasatch Front temperatures Tuesday were expected to reach the upper-40s, down 10 degrees from Monday's forecast. Southern Utahns, along with winds in the 25-35 mph range, can look for highs on Tuesday in the low-60s, down about 15 degrees from Monday's highs.

The Utah Avalanche Center began Monday by rating the Uintas at "considerable" risk for potentially deadly snowslides with the rest of the state's backcountry slopes at "moderate" avalanche risk.

The Utah Division of Air Quality gave blanket "green," or health air quality grades to all the state's monitoring regions.

For more extensive forecast information, point your digital shillelagh to: www.sltrib.com/weather.

remims@sltrib.com

Twitter: @remims