This is your daily news rundown for Tuesday, May 26. In this edition:
- The National Weather Service issued two wind advisories for Utah on Tuesday
- A 5,000-acre prescribed burn could help get water to Great Salt Lake
- A sea lion died just weeks after arriving at Hogle Zoo
Western Utah is under two wind advisories
Much of the western half of Utah could see hazardous winds on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service issued two separate wind advisories. One is for southwest Utah and western Millard and Juab Counties, and another for the Great Salt Lake desert and mountains.
For both, winds are expected to hit 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts up to 50 miles per hour.
Unsecured objects are likely to be blown around, and a few power outages may result.
Blowing dust could also reduce visibility.The wind advisory is in effect until midnight.
A prescribed burn on Monday was part of efforts to support Great Salt Lake
Utah firefighters completed a 5,000-acre prescribed burn on Monday near Farmington Bay.
This was to remove the invasive and water-guzzling reed, phragmites, so that more water can get into the struggling Great Salt Lake.
The operation was initially intended to cover just 1,500 acres, but Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands said they extended to another unit because of a shift in weather conditions.
Although winds carried ash from the burn north into yards across Davis and Weber counties, Utah officials said there was no need to panic.
A sea lion at Hogle Zoo died weeks after its arrival
A sea lion died just weeks after arriving at Utah’s Hogle Zoo.
Early this month, zoo health workers noticed that Kenney, a four-year-old male California sea lion, had become lethargic and lost his appetite. Within days, his condition worsened and he was put under advanced veterinary care.
Despite the care team working with specialists to understand what had happened, Kenney passed away on May 15 from acute liver failure.
The zoo is now investigating to see if his illness could affect other animals in their care. As of now, the four other sea lions at Hogle Zoo are not showing similar symptoms, but are being closely monitored.
