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SALT LAKE CITY — Running barefoot and in shorts, sunbathing and golf: these are things you seldom see people doing in Utah in December. This, however, has been anything but a typical December in the Beehive State, with the month off to its warmest start since 1939.
Temperatures are forecast in the mid- to upper-50s through Friday. That's 15 to 20 degrees warmer than the average temperature this time of year — 39 degrees Fahrenheit.
“It’s just so beautiful out right now,” said Holly Nelson-Phillips, who was strolling her 10-week-old daughter through Liberty Park Monday. “It’s like Florida weather or something.”
Wednesday’s forecast high of 58 degrees in Salt Lake City is expected to surpass highs that day in Jacksonville and Pensacola, Florida.
Runners were spotted outside in Salt Lake City Monday afternoon wearing shorts. One man was even running without shoes and socks.
“I would have tights on — that’s for sure,” said a shorts-sporting Rob Murphy of his typical December running attire. He said he would also be wearing "a base layer, a cotton shirt, and a jacket and gloves and a hat.”
Brandee Mutchler took her toddler to feed the ducks.
“If snow’s on the ground, that makes it harder with toting a toddler around,” she said.
The unseasonably mild conditions have helped spare the Utah Department of Transportation from dipping very much into its snow budget.
Instead, UDOT spokesman John Gleason said crews were focused on projects that are usually not possible now.
“We’re filling potholes, we’re filling cracked seals,” Gleason said. “We’re getting to a lot of the work that typically we wouldn’t be able to do this time of year.”
Gleason cautioned that when the weather finally does take a turn to the more seasonal snow and cold, crews could still potentially run through appropriated funds quickly.
“Even though the first part of the winter has been drier than normal, Utah weather can change on a dime,” he said. “It’s very dynamic. Our crews are ready to go as soon as the snow starts falling.”
