NORTHERN UTAH – Anyone who has plans to go outside this weekend will have to bundle up. Meteorologists say the weather is unseasonably cold for the first day of Autumn.
Officials with the Granite School District say they like to keep kids inside to play when the temperature hits 45 degrees or cooler. However, the cold never stops football. Athletics Director Dave Vande Veegaete says, “The only thing that stops play is lightning.”
He adds that coaches, players and staff have the discretion to decide if any extra gear is necessary to keep the students warm. Vande Veegaete says cheerleaders and football players may have a slight advantage over drill teams, that typically don’t have extra warm clothes to wear during their routines.
Officials from the National Weather Service say the temperatures in Utah feel more like late Autumn and not the beginning. Meteorologist Michael Conger says the clouds that brought the rain were also keeping the temperatures from getting very low. However, there are some places in the higher northern valleys that won’t be as cloudy. “[Cloud cover] stabilizes temperatures and keeps them from falling dramatically. So, when we lose that cloud cover then we start to radiate heat out very quickly,” according to Conger.
He says there are places in the very north of the state that might be below freezing. He says, “We could have some issues with freezing temperatures creating problems for gardens and other agricultural interests.”