Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Predicting Temperature Inversions

A temperature inversion occurs in the Salt Lake Valley when cold, dirty air gets trapped under warmer air.  If there is no wind or a storm, the inversion can last for weeks.  Snow doesn't melt, the air gets difficult to breathe, fog builds up and crystalizes on everything, and it stays bitter cold.  I recall one winter when I was 16 when the inversion didn't lift for roughly a month; some days we couldn't even see across the street clearly.

Well, today in the Salt Lake Tribune, this article claims there is now a center that can predict these inversions a month in advance.
But most Salt Lake residents have always been able to predict temperature inversions.  We call it "January."

1 comment:

  1. Hahaha, yep, January is inversion. It's already started here, and the cold is killing me. Soon the smog will settle in. Fantastic.

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