With dry thunderstorms and gusty outflow winds in the weekend forecast, the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City has issued a Fire Weather Watch.
Portions of Washington, Iron, Kane and Garfield counties are included in the alert, which runs from Saturday afternoon through Saturday evening.
“Widely scattered dry thunderstorms are forecast to develop across Zone 496 early Saturday afternoon, then spread into Zones 494 and 498 through the afternoon and early evening,” according to a Weather Service news release. (See accompanying map.)
Gusty and erratic outflow winds in excess of 40 mpm can be expected near thunderstorms or areas of virga. According to the Weather Service, virga is defined as “streaks or wisps of precipitation falling from a cloud but evaporating before reaching the ground. In certain cases, shafts of virga may precede a microburst.”…