Inversion Hell

Salt Lake City descended into Inversion Hell with the development of low clouds and increasing PM2.5 levels.

Today's MODIS imagery, taken around 1:30 PM local time, showed the coverage quite well with widespread low clouds (in some inastances fog) over much of the central Great Salt Lake, Skull Valley, Tooele Valley, northern Salt Lake Valley, and Davis County.  

During the satellite overpass above, the avenues foothills were cloud free, but that changed at around 4:30 when the clouds pushed into the upper Avenues.

The fog and low clouds would only be depressing if they weren't also accompanied by poor air quality.  Observations from Hawthorne Elementary along 700 East in Salt Lake City show a major increase in PM2.5 concentrations today to 45-49 ug/m3, solidly at Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups levels.  

The high temperature today at the Salt Lake City International Airport was only 32˚F.  For comparison, the maximum temperature on Mt. Baldy (11,000 ft) above Alta reached 33˚F.  

Given the meteorology of the day, I was interested in having a look at things from Ben Lomond Peak above north Ogden.  Being able to enjoy that summit in the wintertime on a clear day with light winds is extremely rare.  It is one of the most wind-raked places in the Wasatch.  Today, however, although the snow was wind jacked, the view was spectacular.  One could really see the majesty of the Wasatch Range from Willard Peak (to the north), then southward where the western face of the Wasatch rises abruptly from Ogden.  One could see pollution around North Ogden and Ogden, but then the northern edge of the low clouds, also evident in the MODIS image above, near border of Weber and Davis County.  

Here's a broader perspective.  

I'll be taking the day off tomorrow to recover and avoid breathing the outside air.