Quiet plus haze

Tropics

Nothing much going out there in the skies over Utah today. Quite the opposite for the areas in the Caribbean. Hurricane Melissa is currently impacting eastern Cuba as a weakened but still strong hurricane. Damage across Jamaica probably won't be totally assessed until later this week/weekend as power and internet comes back online. Satellite imagery from Melissa yesterday - 10/28/2025 - showed a textbook example of an annular (donut-like) hurricane.

The symmetrical nature of the storm was quite mesmerizing and revealing of it's strength. Top winds just before landfall reached 185 mph, which ranks the storm as the second highest wind speed ever recorded from an Atlantic hurricane and ties Melissa for the strongest Atlantic hurricane to ever make landfall. Melissa's lowest central pressure of 892 mb ties for third most intense Atlantic hurricane on record. 

Utah

Another cold crisp morning in Salt Lake City. Not a cloud in sight over Utah. KSLC didn't break freezing this morning - low only got to 34 F - but they break freezing yesterday morning, with a low of 30 F. First frost/dip below freezing for the season for the Salt Lake Valley. The average date the SLV sees low temperatures reach freezing or below is Oct. 20, so a bit later than average but pretty close to on track. 

KSLC Min, Max and Average first and last freeze days (<= 32 F)

Minimum	Mar-07 (2017)	Sep-13 (1928)
Mean	Apr-22	Oct-20
Maximum	Jun-06 (1914)	Nov-17 (2021)

Not surprisingly, the state of Utah cold spot yesterday - 10/28/2025 - was Peter Sinks, with a low of -10 F. Peter sinks is a small crater like area in the far northern Wasatch/Bear River mountains that pools cold air easily and commonly can be the coldest spot in Utah and even the CONUS. 

Observed temp (F) at Peter Sinks on 10/28/2025

Ridging has quickly established itself  after our mild AR event this past weekend.  Warming mid-level temps associated with the ridge has already created inverted conditions across the Wasatch Front. The sounding from KSLC this morning reveals an inversion and stable conditions up to and above 700 mb, where there is a fairly obvious warm-nose (area of high temps). The consequence? Air quality will gradually degrade over as pollutants build up below the inversion and a haze will begin to blanket the SLV.

1800Z 10/29/2025 - Observed 500mb ghp, temp (C), and winds

KSLC 12Z 10/29/2025 sounding - temp (red) and dewpt (green)

Besides a grazing dry cool front overnight Wednesday into Thursday, there is nothing on the horizon weatherwise for Utah through the upcoming weekend. The cool front won't change things much, with haze likely continuing to build. Warming temperatures and dry conditions are expected through at least the next 5 days. There are hints of a trough and cold front moving through Utah sometime around 11/6/2025, but too far out to say with any confidence. Personally, I will be enjoying the abnormally warm start to November with temps in the 60s and sunshine before winter decides to set in... 

*I want to add a quick correction to a previous post about the ranked top five monthly total precipitation for KSLC. Here are the correct top five wettest months on record: