This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Dread Winter Inversion, when warm air aloft and cold air below combine to trap automobile and industrial emissions in northern Utah's polluted valleys, has arrived like a wet, stinky blanket.
But the hacking denizens of the Wasatch Front also had the conundrum of morning fog to deal with. Fog or smog? How do you tell? It's that metallic, hydrocarbon taste and hazy orange-to-yellow tinge that gives away smog. Fog is, well, a lighter shade of pale.
While the region's morning patches of fog were to burn off by late morning on Wednesday and again Thursday, the inversion, akin to those poor, hacking relations who show up on your doorstep with an overstuffed mountain of frayed luggage, are staying a while.
According to the National Weather Service, any pollution-scouring storm activity is expected until this coming weekend.
On Wednesday, the Utah Division of Air Quality rated Utah and Weber counties as "orange," or unhealthy for young children, the elderly and those with compromised lung or heart conditions. Open burning and solid-fuel burning stove use were banned, and commuters were urged to choose mass transit over private vehicle use.
Salt Lake, Davis, Cache, Tooele and Duchesne counties, along with most of the remainder of the state, fell under "yellow," or moderate air quality designations into the end of the week.
High temperatures Thursday were forecast to range into the upper-30s to low-40s along the northern Wasatch Front, a few degrees cooler than Wednesday. Overnight lows were to be in the low- to mid-20s.
Southern Utahns were to catch a break: Thursday's highs were predicted in the upper-50s, the same as on Wednesday, while overnight lows were forecast to be in the mid- to upper-30s. sunny, clear skies were expected both days.
The Utah Avalanche Center rated the risk for potentially deadly mountain backcountry snowslides at "moderate" for all the state's mountain ranges as of Wednesday.
More extensive forecast information is available at the Tribune's weather page: http://www.sltrib.com/weather.
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