Rayleigh lidar observations of mesosphere temperature profiles obtained from 40 to ~100 km from Logan, Utah (41.7, 111.8 W, altitude, 1.9 km) over 10 nights in late February, 1995, revealed an interesting development between 60 to 75 km of a winter mesosphere inversion layer with an amplitude of ~20--30 K and a downward phase progression of ~1 km/hr. The data also showed two altitude regions exhibiting significant cooling of 10--30 K in extent. These were located below and above the peak of the inversion layer, respectively, at altitudes of ~50--55 km and ~70--80 km. When these results were compared with the predictions of a global wave scale model (GSWM), the observed thermal mesosphere structure is similar to the computed composite tidal structure based upon the semi-diurnal and diurnal tides with the exception that observed amplitudes of heating and cooling are ~10x larger than predicted GSWM values. We suggest that these events over Utah are caused through a localized mechanism involving the coupling of gravity waves to the mesopause tidal structure. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union