Unofficial Bike to Work into the Wind Day

If you bike to the University of Utah campus from the west or south as many do, it was tough going into blast-furnace winds this morning.  Strong east-northeast downslope surface winds developed along the Wasatch Front overnight as a weak, somewhat unorganized upper-level closed low combed through the high-amplitude death ridge, leading to a strong pressure gradient across northeast Utah and southwest Wyoming and flow with an easterly component at crest level.

1300 UTC 6 June 2016 WV imagery with 2-h RAP analysis
Observations from the William Browning Building on campus show increasing ENE flow beginning about 8 PM MDT yesterday evening.  Although there were a couple of periods with slackened winds, maximum sustained winds (25 mph) and gusts (37 mph) occurred around 6 AM MDT, although it's still breezy this morning.  


Due to the strong downslope winds, overnight temperatures were ridiculously warm, remaining at or above 80ºF for most of the night except during some of the lighter wind periods when they dropped temporarily into the mid or low 70s.


Welcome to summer.

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