Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Salt Lake City is experiencing unusually warm temperatures for October, with KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson noting it's unprecedented to have so many days in the 80s.
- This warm spell includes the first-ever 90-degree October day, but cooler temperatures may arrive late next week.
SALT LAKE CITY — The leaves are starting to turn and porches and yards around the Salt Lake Valley are becoming populated with jack-o'-lanterns and other Halloween decorations.
So, why does it still feel like summer?
That's been the question a lot of meteorologists are asking, said KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson.
"We can get warm spells that can hang on into October, but to get a stretch like this is definitely going to end up being unprecedented," Johnson said.
Before October began, the most 80-degree days Salt Lake City had seen was 10 — in 1958, 1963, 1979 and 1996.
This month, however, Salt Lake City has already had seven days that reach into the 80s, and Johnson said there are five more in the forecast the rest of this week.
"We could most definitely finish with 12," he said. "That would put us at the most ever recorded since records began in 1874. So, definitely on the rare side to see this many warm days in October."
Indeed, last week brought the first 90-degree October day ever recorded in Salt Lake City when it hit 92 degrees on Oct. 4. Even last week's highs were just a couple of degrees away from reaching record temperatures, Johnson said.
With summer-like temperatures expected to continue in northern Utah at least through the end of this week, when can we expect it to start cooling down a bit and finally start feeling like fall?
"I'm seeing indications from long-range models that late next week sometime, we'll get some kind of push of cold air. Almost all models are in agreement with that," Johnson said.
What remains to be seen, the meteorologist said, is how much precipitation will come with the temperature drop, how drastic the drop will be and how long it will last.
Still, once the fall temperatures come, they'll likely stick around.
"I think we'll be hard-pressed to return to these (high) temperatures," Johnson said. "A lot of times, when we get that first push of cold air in October, we can warm back up. I just don't think we'll warm back up to 86, 87, 88.
"I think we could rebound, maybe, to some 70s. But, we're going to be hard-pressed to see those 80s after this next push of cold air."
