This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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 Wasatch Front's forecast is for a cold, snowy and hacking exit for 2015, and a New Year's Day infused with particulates and the taint of hydrocarbons.
Blame that on the winter air inversion, where weak storms and cold air aloft continue to trap warmer air, and its pollutants, along northern Utah's densely populated Salt Lake and Utah counties.
On Wednesday, the Utah Division of Air Quality once more ranked both those areas in its "orange," or unhealthy categories. Use of coal, wood and other "solid fuel" burning furnaces, along with all outdoors burning, were banned; motorists were asked to stay home or use mass transit if they had to travel; and those with compromised health, the elderly, and the very young were urged to limit outdoor activity.
Air Quality was only nominally better in Davis, Weber, Box Elder, Cache, Tooele, Duchesne and Uintah counties, where "yellow," or moderate particulate levels led to voluntary restrictions on burning, vehicle use, and industrial emissions. Washington and Carbon counties were the only areas of the state deemed as "green," or healthy for air quality.
Northern Utahns looked for a light dusting of snow through the remaining days of 2015. High temperatures on New Year's Eve will struggle into the low- to mid-20s, with lows near 10 degrees expected for revelers during the countdown to 2016. New Year's Day, for those able to flop out of bed, will dawn cold and sunny with highs in the low-20s.
A happier New Year, at least weatherwise, was forecast for southern Utah. Under sunny skies, highs were to climb into the low- to mid-40s, ushered in by overnight lows in the mid-20s.
As for those storms, they weren't expected to amount to much: an inch or two of new snow in northern Utah over the next two days, and around 3 inches in the central Utah mountains.
Want to escape the haze below? A trip to the mountains and a day of skiing, snowboarding, or just relishing a cup of coffee or hot cider at the state's resorts might be a good option.
However, keep in mid that travel will continue to be icy, and dicey. What little new snow falls will only worsen already ice-packed roadways, especially in the higher elevations. That's why the Utah Highway Patrol advised New Year's revelers to not only choose designated drivers, but to urge them to soberly and slowly navigate the states' interstates, highways and arterials.
The Utah Avalanche Center warned that the risk of potentially deadly mountain backcountry snow slides remained "considerable" in the Uintas, Skyline, Moab and Abajo mountains as of Wednesday. Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake and Provo districts were at "moderate" avalanche risk.
For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather.
Twitter: @remims