This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Worsening inversions were to make northern Utah's polluted urban valleys dangerous places to breathe for the elderly, very young and those with lung and heart ailments this weekend.
The Utah Division of Air Quality placed the entire Wasatch Front — including Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Cache, Box Elder and Utah counties — under its "orange," or unhealthy air quality designation going into Saturday and Sunday.
Tooele and Washington counties, along with the Uintas, were also compromised, earning "yellow," or moderate grades for breathing — and the National Weather Service said it would be well into next week before any fresh storm activity may arrive to scour the gray gunk out of the region.
Mandatory restrictions on solid-fuel burning devices, open burning and unnecessary driving were in place for the Wasatch Front, in general. Further, health professionals urged avoidance of extended outdoor activity in the worse areas of pollution.
The Utah Avalanche Center warned that the risk for potentially deadly snowslides remained "high" for the Uintas and "considerable" in the mountains above Logan. Slopes in the Salt Lake, Ogden and Provo areas were rated at "moderate' risk. The mountains of southeastern Utah's Moab district were graded at "low" risk for avalanches.
The Wasatch Front looked for high temperatures on Saturday in the upper-30s with overnight lows in the mid-teens, the same forecast as that for Friday.
Southern Utah expected highs in the low-60s and lows in the mid-20s.
For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/weather.
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