SALT LAKE CITY — The central and southern parts of Utah were under a flash flood watch Tuesday.
Some of the storms Utah were expected to produce more than an inch of rain in a short period of time, said KSL-TV meteorologist Dan Guthrie.
"That can create some issues really anywhere that they happen, especially because most of our state is rock formation. It’s not grass that can absorb all that water,” he said.
Although Utah's rain flow usually comes from the Pacific Ocean, Guthrie said the monsoon season near the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California has been pushing the rain through central and southern Utah before reaching the Wasatch Front.
“Monsoon just means it shifts and now it comes through the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of California and it comes up through southern Utah, so we’re the last ones to get it,” Guthrie said. "This is monsoon season. This is right on time with what it normally is.”
The Wasatch Front can expect to see scattered showers through Wednesday, but Utahns can expect to "start to dry out by Thursday and by the weekend we’ll see it’s dry and sunny.”
While many people welcome the rain, Jack Wilbur, spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, said some may not appreciate the showers.
“For those folks that grow hay, if any of them have their hay cut, today’s rain would have been unwelcome,” Wilbur said Tuesday. “The only impact of today's rain would be if somebody had a product like hay that could potentially get moldy if it was cut and in the field."
Utah has seen a slight increase in overall temperatures during the summer months.
Guthrie said the Wasatch Front normally experiences about seven days where temperatures climb above 100 degrees, but has experienced 11 days with such conditions this summer.