Paighten HarkinsSalt Lake City’s air quality has been among the worst in the world as wildfires burn across the drought-ridden and increasingly dry state — and there are few signs of relief in the forecast.
That’s according to Seth Warthen, lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
“The biggest thing is going to be: Where exactly are the fires? What exactly are the prevailing winds? And,” he said, “if we have any new starts.”
As of early Tuesday, as forecasters issued a red flag warning across parts of the state because of low humidity and predicted gusty winds, three fires of 10,000 acres or larger were burning south and/or west of Salt Lake City with very little containment. (Firefighters have said the Bonneville Fire, in the foothills east of Salt Lake City is “no longer an immediate threat.”)
The prevailing winds expected the rest of this week, Warthen said, will be coming from the south and southwest — funneling the smoke toward Utah’s capital city.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Smoke rises from the distant Bonneville Fire, as seen from Mountain View Golf Course in West Jordan, Sunday, June 21, 2026.
Radar shows, for instance, that the smoke plume from the Cottonwood Fire, near Beaver, has already spread past Utah into parts of Colorado and southern Wyoming.
When those winds pick up, smoke from the Iron Fire southwest of Utah Lake, which has prompted evacuations in Eureka, will blow into the Salt Lake Valley. And winds from the west would carry smoke from the Hastings Fire, near Tooele.
It gets worse.
Starting Wednesday, forecasts show a chance of thunderstorms. The rain is much-needed — but whipping winds fuel flames, and lightning could spark new fires, Warthen said.
After that, a series of hot and dry, windy days are expected to follow, which spells critical fire danger.
The state’s Department of Environmental Quality is predicting Salt Lake County’s air quality will be “unhealthy for sensitive groups” through at least Thursday.
Warthen noted a “really decent looking” cold front is moving into Utah this weekend.
“While the cooler air is certainly a welcome change,” he said, the winds ahead of that strong front “look like they’re going to get really gusty” — between 35 and 45 mph — which would mark “another day of widespread fire weather danger across Utah.”
“The reality is I don’t see any relief from the smoke, at least until the fires can be better contained,” he said. “And the weather conditions, at least for the next many days, don’t look like they’re going to be very cooperative, unfortunately.”
Regardless, Warthen added that Utahns may generally be able to breathe easier in the daytime, when heat lofts smoke higher into the air, generally bringing haze.
But as temperatures cool in the evening, the smoke will likely settle into the valley, bringing with it worse air quality.
Paighten is an Enterprise reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. She covers a variety of topics, including business, health, growth and the legal justice system — sometimes all at once. She is from southern Oklahoma, and lived and worked in the state, most recently at the Tulsa World, before starting at The Tribune in October 2017.