Sunshine, wind, and a continued elevated fire danger

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:01]All right, let's talk about your forecast here as we take a look at the summer countdown. You know, days like today probably have you thinking, hey, we had the unofficial start to summer back on Monday, and now as we get closer and closer to the month of June. Yeah, we're officially 24 days away from the summer solstice itself. Of course, that typically spells some of the warmer temperatures that we usually see during the year, but also you probably know that that means that we get closer and closer to the longest amount of daylight that we see during the year, which is actually on the summer solstice or around that time. So, in about 24 days or so. Speaking of that, let's take a look at some of the numbers here because today, of course, we had a sunrise this morning at 6:00 a.m. The sun set this afternoon. If you want to barbecue a little later on, you got time this evening as the sun does not set until 8:48 this evening. Now, keep in mind things will be changing and by the time we get towards, of course, the winter time, this winter solstice there, December the 21st, we'll go from having 14 hours and 48 minutes of daylight today to having just 9 hours and 14 minutes by the time we get towards the winter solstice. So enjoy as we add in the last bit of daylight and gives us some of the longest days of the year because in just a couple of months we'll be talking about one of the shortest amounts of daylight times that we see during the year. All right, let's talk about the wind machine. That thing is in place right now and it is pumping in the low pressure to our west, the high pressure to our east. We are sandwiched in between that getting lots of wind, but we're also seeing some dry air filtering in. So that's why we're seeing a lack of those mountain thunder showers developing as we've gone throughout the past few hours. Take a look at some of these wind speeds out there. You'll be able to see we've had gusts anywhere from 40 to 50 plus miles per hour across western Utah. So it has definitely been a gusty afternoon and that will continue. In fact, will likely increase across the state as we go throughout the rest of today. So be aware of that. Two hands on the steering wheel. In fact, let's zoom in on southwest Utah. Notice around Brian Head, we've had winds gusting around 60 65 miles per hour. Of course, that's a little higher up in elevation, but still we're seeing some of those gusty winds, uh, winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour out towards Enterprise. So, these are the areas that we're probably the most concerned about when it comes to the wind speeds out there as we do have again the wind advisory in effect from Delta through Milford. You're hopping on 15 from Beaver down through Cedar City. That's those areas where you're going to want to have those hand two hands on the steering wheel at 10 and two just to be safe. Otherwise, the critical fire danger combines the winds with the dry air and the vegetation. And that's why we have these fire weather warnings in effect here for portions of the eastern ant basin, the book cliffs, and also as you get down towards the Grand Staircase and over towards the San Raphael swell there because of those uh windy conditions and dry air. It stays dry today across the state. It stays dry as we go into your Thursday as well. But that upper low gets on the move finally and moves our way by Friday, producing a few isolated showers and storms. I think a little better chance across far northern Utah when we get that northwesterly flow behind this low pressure coming in on Saturday morning for some scattered showers and then that begins to lift out of here by the second half of the weekend. Here's another view of that from upstairs in the upper level maps and you can see this low pressure cut off from the main storm track to the north. So, it just kind of wobbles out here towards the west and then finally it gets picked back up by that jetream.

[00:03:22]And then that happens on Friday, bringing us a chance of a few isolated showers and storms before it moves out of here. And as it moves away, this high pressure ridge builds in from the east.

[00:03:32]And that's going to bring in a pretty significant heat wave back into the area, especially for our friends across southern Utah where we'll see those temperatures approaching the triple digits. St. George, I've got you in the mid 80s the next few days, but look at that. Upper 70s for Friday. Woo. That's going to feel nice, especially considering by next Tuesday, yeah, we're right around 100° for a high. The W was front, mid80s for the next two days. Few isolated showers and storms Friday night into Saturday. Otherwise, warming up next week. Matt.