Does all of Utah have issues with inversions? (Salt Lake City, Provo: live, to move)

[Juice Malone]

Or just Salt Lake City 'metro?

I know little of Utah and was wondering. It seems to be a constant theme when I hear ppl take about Utah. Could someone shed some light on how difficult this makes life there?

Why don't I hear anyone from other mountain west cities talk about this either? Is it more of a Utah specific problem?

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

It happens between the 2 mountain ranges on the east and west side of SLC. It peter's out as the western mountains do.

[Beernik]

They places most impacted are the Wasatch Front (about Brigham City to Santaquin) and Cache County.

[ueadian]

It's worse in the lower areas of the state. So Salt Lake has it pretty bad. As the elevation goes up, in general, the amount of pollution goes down. We are at 4700 feet and we have about 60% less pollution then those at 3600 feet (measured by a PM 2.5 / 10 detector) at 6000 feet (Suncrest proper) it's about 80% less then in Provo (which is a low point in Utah County) Daybreak is also higher then the majority of the valley and has about 30% less pollution (the U of U did a study on it awhile ago putting PM 2.5 meters in Traxx trains)

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by ueadian

It's worse in the lower areas of the state. So Salt Lake has it pretty bad. As the elevation goes up, in general, the amount of pollution goes down. We are at 4700 feet and we have about 60% less pollution then those at 3600 feet (measured by a PM 2.5 / 10 detector) at 6000 feet (Suncrest proper) it's about 80% less then in Provo (which is a low point in Utah County) Daybreak is also higher then the majority of the valley and has about 30% less pollution (the U of U did a study on it awhile ago putting PM 2.5 meters in Traxx trains)

I'd amend that to say the "lower areas along the Wasatch Front." I don't believe cities in central or southern Utah really get an inversion at all.

[Geo-Aggie]

TL;DR - Most populated places in Northern Utah have inversion issues.
Understanding what causes an inversion goes a long way to answering the questions

Normally what we see in the world is that weather moves things along and causes a situation where air gets colder as you go up in elevation (Note: mountains are cold). But this happens because weather causes mixing. In traditional physics, cold denser air falls and light hotter air rises. When a system is given an opportunity to sit for a while, this is the base state it will return to. Cold on bottom, warm on top. Throw in the existence of a low-lying valley and things get worse as this cold air now has a little bowl in which to be contained. As air cools in the mountains it falls and things get colder, and colder, until a snow storm comes in and resets things. An interesting note is that the coldest recorded temperature in the continental 48 states (-69F) was recorded in Utah - at Peter Sinks, and happened because of this exact phenomena.

So with that background, the formula for a temperature inversion is high mountains, low valleys, cold winters, and uneventful weather - this describes the majority of the northern half of the state. An inversion isn't necessarily bad, it's just .. cold. It only becomes a health problem when you throw in a pollution source which then stagnates and is unable to move out as it would under in normal weather-mixing conditions, so any of the areas that have high population (the Wasatch Front, from North Ogden to Spanish Fork), significant large-scale farming operations (Logan/Tooele/Brigham City), or significant oil and gas production (Uintah Basin) will have inversion-related pollution issues. This same formula also explains why inversions exist in other geographically similar highly-populated places such as Boise, Ulaanbaatar, and Kabul.

This lack of weather movement is why Salt Lake has worse winter pollution than heavily industrial cities like Detroit or Pittsburgh, but then has only moderate summer pollution as weather patterns in the summer tend to allow for more daily heating and cooling to move things along.

[irman]

Wow, this explains it all, or ?

All you have to do now is look at the lay of the land and find out what kind of climate.

Theoretically with this explanation, there should never come an other question about the why of any inversion layer.

Practically, who knows ...

[Treasurevalley92]

Boise, Idaho also gets them in the winter.

[Hrothgar]

Originally Posted by Juice Malone

Or just Salt Lake City 'metro?

I know little of Utah and was wondering. It seems to be a constant theme when I hear ppl take about Utah. Could someone shed some light on how difficult this makes life there?

Why don't I hear anyone from other mountain west cities talk about this either? Is it more of a Utah specific problem?

I can't address where in Utah there isn't one as I don't know but I can say it does make life pretty difficult. I am in good shape and exercise regularly but my job requires me to be outside in the SLC Metro area and winters are pretty miserable. Usually I end up with a nasal infection or chest cold/infection from it that lasts for 2-3 months at a time. My wife who is also into fitness but stays mostly indoors has recently developes asthmatic symptoms from the inversions.

Utah has great summers and lots of pretty places as well as cool businesses but the inversions and air quality are horrible!

[edhawkins80]

The inversion typically happens in the Salt Lake valley. If the inversion lasts for several day, it can begin to spill over into north Utah valley. I have lived in Utah Valley for 8 years and the air is usually very clear and clean, but I work in SL county so I get my fair share of pollution when it occurs.

It does not seem to affect me, but I know it affects many peoples breathing and overall feeling of wellness.