Barometric Pressure Forecast for Midvale, Utah
Barometric pressure forecast for Midvale, Utah — on the Jordan River floor of the Salt Lake Valley beneath the Cottonwood canyons, where nightly downslope drainage shapes the local air. See current barometric pressure and what it means for weather-sensitive people.
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Pressure and weather in Midvale
Midvale sits near the middle of the Salt Lake Valley on the low ground along the Jordan River, directly west of the mouths of Big and Little Cottonwood canyons, which cut deep into the Wasatch Range immediately to the east. Those canyons give the town a strong daily wind cycle that has little to do with passing weather. On clear nights air cools on the high slopes, grows dense and drains down the canyons and out across the valley floor as a steady easterly flow, reversing to an upslope breeze during the afternoon. The barometric pressure trace barely registers this, yet it governs temperature, air movement and where pollutants settle. On the synoptic scale the valley's other defining feature is stability: high pressure over the Great Basin produces long stretches when the barometer moves very little, and in mid-winter that stagnation deepens into the inversions the Wasatch Front is known for. The events that break the pattern are Pacific troughs crossing the Great Basin, which bring a quick fall in current barometric pressure, gusty pre-frontal south wind, mountain snow and a return of clear air within hours. Spring and autumn see these arrive most frequently; summer is hot and dry with a level trace and occasional monsoon moisture reaching north. A barometric pressure forecast for Midvale matters most from December through April.
What this means for you
Can barometric pressure cause headaches? In a valley with strong canyon drainage, a great deal changes overnight without the barometer moving at all, so logging time of day alongside symptoms is unusually informative here. Use the barometric pressure forecast in Pressure Pal as a migraine tracker app and watch pressure change today when a Pacific trough is due.