Holiday forecast: Utah's going to be hot, and in places humid

Utah's Fourth of July forecast is hot, and thanks to a developing high pressure ridge, occasionally will be humid, too. Triple digit temperatures, thunder, lightning and rain.

Is this Utah or Louisiana, for heck's sake?

Calm down, now. It's all a matter of perspective. So its going to be miserably hot — it could be winter, and our forecast could look like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jth9d5uvukk.

Also, don't let the afternoon and evening precipitation expected on Friday in northern and central Utah fool you. It will still be even hotter further to the south, where a "Red Flag" wildfire danger alert was in effect through 10 p.m. Thursday with hot, dry conditions to continue through the weekend.

The wildfire danger advisory covered basically the southern half of the state, stretching from Price south, southwest and southeast to include St. George, Zion National Park, Escalante and Bluff.

The Wasatch Front looked for daytime highs flirting with 100 degrees on Independence Day, with showers coming late in the afternoon and evening, a forecast that echoed that for Thursday.

Southern Utahns could expect temperatures well into the triple digits on the Fourth of July, along with evening thunderstorms. That, too, was twin for Thursday's forecast for the region.

Along with the potential for lightning caused wildfires, firefighters statewide were on alert for fireworks-related blazes as Utahns celebrated the holiday. Fireworks restrictions were in place in many communities and banned outright on forests and park lands, but celebrants can be explosively creative without official fireworks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6dDcHVghjU.

The Utah Division of Air Quality predicted "orange," or unhealthy Independence Day air quality for Salt Lake, Weber and Davis counties. Utah, Box Elder and Tooele counties earned "yellow," or compromised air quality grades, while "green," healthy breathing conditions were expected for Uintah, Duchesne, Carbon, Washington and Cache counties.

The Intermountain Allergy & Asthma website listed mold at "high" on its pollen index, while grass came in at "moderate."

For more extensive forecast information, check out the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/weather.

remims@sltrib.com

Twitter: @remims Surviving the heat •

Tips on enjoying and surviving the heat are detailed on this website: http://nws.noaa.gov/os/heat/index.shtml.