Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Salt Lake City, UT
Issued by NWS Salt Lake City, UT
746 FXUS65 KSLC 111051 AFDSLC Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Salt Lake City UT 351 AM MST Thu Dec 11 2025 .KEY MESSAGES... - High pressure will be in place through the weekend, with dry conditions and temperatures around 10-20F warmer than normal. Valley inversions will build as high pressure is in place. - Unsettled weather looks to make a return to northern Utah by the middle of next week. && .DISCUSSION...Utah remains under a northwesterly flow aloft this morning with high pressure centered off the California coast. This high pressure will continue to build while slowly shifting inland through the end of the week. Winds will continue to trend downward during this time as a result. This should allow valley inversions to strengthen into the weekend. For today, the airmass remains rather mild, with H7 temperatures ranging from +2C across the north to +8C across the far south. However, with clearing skies early this morning, temperatures will start out cooler compared to yesterday. Combined with the lowering sun angles and somewhat weaker mixing, this should mean that temperatures may not be as warm in some valley areas compared to yesterday, and SLC has a lower chance to reach 60F today (but should be close). Otherwise, expect valley temperatures to continue to trend a bit cooler heading into the weekend but remain 10-20 degrees above climatological normals. A closed low currently near 27N 127W will slowly meander northeast while gradually weakening. Models have this crossing Utah Sunday night into Monday morning. This is expected to have little effect on sensible weather as moisture with this system will remain very limited and the airmass will only cool slightly. Thereafter, the pattern will then trend more zonal, allowing a series of weak disturbances to ripple across northern Utah beginning around the middle of next week, potentially bringing precipitation to northern Utah. Models are coming into good agreement now with the pattern shift. The uncertainty lies in the position of the jet and how much precipitation will make it into Utah. Cluster analysis of global ensembles for next Wednesday shows the driest cluster as the most favored, but only with 28% of members. The rest of the clusters are more moist by varying amounts, so one can consider this as a good chance that portions of northern Utah could see *some* precipitation, even if not significant. However, the lack of a strong cold front will maintain high snow levels, with any precipitation taking the form of valley rain and mountain snow, at least during the midweek timeframe. && .AVIATION...KSLC...VFR conditions will persist for the KSLC terminal through the period. Dry conditions and clear skies will continue with light southerly winds transitioning to light northerly winds during the afternoon. .REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING...VFR conditions will persist for the entire airspace through the period. Dry conditions and mostly clear skies will continue with light diurnally driven winds. Elevated diurnal wind gusts will be across the higher terrain of the far northeastern airspace. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...None. WY...None. && $$ Cheng/Mahan For more information from NOAA`s National Weather Service visit... http://weather.gov/saltlakecity