Utahns woke to teeth-chattering cold weather on Christmas Eve and can expect the same for Christmas.
Technically, it will be a white Christmas because snow is on the ground. But no new flakes are likely to freshen the blanket, so as one wag noted, instead of a white Christmas, "how about a muddy-gray-splashed-with-dirt Christmas?"
Dense fog is a possibility through the holiday period, and fog can cause delays for air travelers. Visibility was only a quarter of a mile on Sunday morning. Stagnant weather might continue long enough to pose a risk of fog by midweek.
Meanwhile, the snow cover radiated heat off the ground, and the lack of cloud insulation meant it kept going off into space. In addition, the winter solstice — the shortest day of the year — was last Friday, so nights are still long while days are brief.
"These are the darkest weeks of the year," notes Chris Gibson, meteorologist at the National Weather Service forecast office on North Temple.
With a high-pressure system that keeps the atmosphere stable, the combination means temperatures are frosty.
"It's been down to 11 at the airport," Gibson said.
Logan's temperature Monday morning was an icy minus 13. "That's probably one of the colder ones," he said.
On Salt Lake City's east bench, the low was 13.
"Tooele Valley was a little bit colder" than Salt Lake City. "Some of the remote weather stations were down to the single digits, 6 or 7 degrees." Rush Valley, Tooele County, recorded a temperature near zero.
Bryce Canyon Airport, Garfield County, shivered at minus 8. Provo dropped to 9 degrees.
In northern Utah valleys, highs should reach to the middle or upper 20s. This pattern should persist for much of the week, with cold temperatures and areas of valley flog.
"But the mountains will be sunny," with temperatures reaching about 30 — great for skiing.
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