Wind Advisory 3, NWS Salt Lake City, UT

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Salt Lake City UT
945 PM MDT Mon Mar 9 2026

.KEY MESSAGES...

- A mostly dry cold front will bring a cooldown for Tuesday and
  Wednesday, bringing northern Utah and southwest Wyoming closer
  to normal temperatures for this time of year while southern Utah
  remains above normal. A return to well above normal temperatures
  areawide is then expected for the remainder of the week and
  through much of next week.

- Strong and gusty westerly winds are expected on Tuesday and
  again Thursday into the weekend across southwest Wyoming and
  along the ridgetops and leeward side of terrain of central and
  northern Utah.

&&

.DISCUSSION...A near zonal flow aloft is in place across most of
Utah this evening with an upper jet across the PacNW, Idaho, and
Montana, while a cutoff low continues to spin over Baja
California. Good mixing today along with an H7 temperature of 3F
over SLC per the 00z sounding resulted in a warm airmass today,
with SLC reaching a high of 71F, warmest so far this year.
Temperatures will trend cooler for Tuesday, however, as the
northern stream jet buckles allowing a low-amplitude trough to
graze northern Utah which will push a mostly dry cold front into
the area. Afternoon maxes on Tuesday will trend around 7-15
degrees cooler across northern Utah and around 2-8 degrees cooler
across central, southern, and eastern Utah. Even with the cooling
trend, however, we are still looking at temperatures near to
slightly above climatological normals across the north and well
above climo across the rest of the area.

With the cold front, cannot rule out any measurable precipitation,
as a few models show some dollops of QPF. There is currently a
10-20% chance of 0.01 inches of precipitation or greater across
the northern Utah mountains. More noticeable (besides the
temperature drop across the north) will be gusty winds near and
behind the front on Tuesday. The strongest winds are expected
across southwest Wyoming, the western Uinta Basin, and exposed
ridgelines of the northern Utah mountains. Gusts over 40 mph at
times will be likely. Looking more closely at the potential for
the need for wind highlights, the western Uinta Basin has the best
chance of reaching criteria for a Wind Advisory (gusts over 45
mph for three hours), but it still looks marginal at this time
(40-50% chance).

As the trough exits the area for Wednesday, a low-amplitude ridge
will spread across the western CONUS. Winds will decrease over
Utah while the cooler post-frontal temperatures linger.
Temperatures will rebound Thursday and Friday. Afternoon maxes
could potentially reach the upper 60s to around 70F once again at
SLC during this time. Periods of gusty winds can also be expected
again over southwest Wyoming and the northern mountains as a
shortwave trough crosses Montana. In fact, the ECMWF Extreme
Forecast Index is showing a stronger signal for anomalous winds
during this time compared to Tuesday.

Over the weekend, there is good model consensus on another trough
carving southeast which looks to graze southwest Wyoming around
the Saturday through Saturday night timeframe. This would push
another mostly dry cold front into Utah and another round of
gusty winds greater than 40 mph to portions of northeast Utah and
southwest Wyoming. Following this trough, there is high confidence
in a longwave trough building into the area for the bulk of next
week. With deterministics bringing in H7 temperatures of 8-10C
across Utah by midweek, look for temperatures to trend quite
unseasonably warm. How about a 41% chance of SLC reaching 80F next
Wednesday and a 47% chance on Thursday? That's what the 19z NBM
has, and that does not take into consideration that the bias
correction may not currently have the best handle on these
anomalous temperatures.

&&

.AVIATION...KSLC...Light southeasterly winds prevail at the terminal
through Tuesday morning, before a dry cold front passage results in
a switch to breezy northwesterly winds after ~16z. Otherwise, VFR
conditions prevail with increasing mid-high level cloud coverage
into Tuesday.

.REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING...Overall, VFR conditions
prevail for all regional terminals. Generally light and terrain
driven winds prevail for most regional terminals overnight, except
for terminals west of the Wasatch where increased west-southwest
winds are expected to develop after around 12z. A dry cold front
passage will bring a shift to breezy northwesterly winds for
northern Utah and southwest Utah terminals by mid to late morning.
Gusty west-southwest winds develop late morning for southern Utah
terminals.

&&

.SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
UT...None.
WY...None.
&&

Cheng/Whitlam

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