Atmospheric Inversion: Utah's Winter Woe

What is an atmospheric inversion? And why every winter is it the talk of the town (city) in Salt Lake?

Meteorologically speaking, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. Big deal right? Here's why...

When a warm air mass moves over another cold, dense, air mass -- as it often does during winter in northern Utah's Salt Lake Valley, that colder air mass settles into the land-locked valley, becomes heavy; and because of its weight and lack of wind movement at lower elevations, it cannot move. The end result is a visibly stagnant air mass in the form of low clouds, fog and/or haze.

So again, why is this a big deal? An inversion can lead to extremely dangerous pollution such as smog being trapped close to the ground, with possible adverse effects on health. This is why, believe it or not, Utah, has some of the worst air quality in the United States.

How does an inversion disappear? Typically an inversion only occurs when high pressure is dominating the troposphere (the lower region of the earth's atmosphere). During high pressure air sinks and becomes trapped. But when a low pressure system is overhead air rises, therefore lifting the inversion from the valley and disintegrating its associated pollutants from the earth's surface.

So what's the catch? If you like fair, sunny weather, deal with the inversion. If you don't want to deal with the inversion, you'll have to deal with it being stormy.

For those followers who needed a better understanding of what the inversion was, I hope The Northeast Quadrant was able to help!

Totally Cool Utah Weather Facts!

What better way to learn more about Utah's weather than to ask the locals? And did you know a very famous "weather" movie was filmed here in the Beehive State?

Check out this video blog post and learn a little more about Utah's climate, its record highs and lows, its average and exceedingly average snowfall, and even its rare tornadic history!

By the end of the video I'm sure you'll be feeling as EMUtional as I was!

The Frozen Shores of Utah Lake

A cold day, blue skies, majestic mountains, an ice-covered lake and a magnificent sunset! Check out this video taken yesterday along the shores of a frozen Utah Lake, in Utah Valley, in Utah County, in Northeast Utah.

Clear Skies Over Utah Valley

Today, as low pressure retreated and moved into the central plains, it allowed a large area of high pressure to build across the inter-mountain West. This offered up clear skies and visibility as far as the eye can see. It looked like this…

The Greatest Snow on Earth!

As promised, here we are in northeast Utah near the Sundance ski area.

A major snowstorm, the same system that brought record rain, snow and wind to California and Arizona, danced its way across the Beehive State over the past 24 hour hours, dumping greater than 3 feet of snow in some areas. The threat of extreme winter weather has prompted winter storm warnings, blizzard warnings and even avalanche warnings.

These two videos were taken earlier, which shows just how much snow there is.... and it's not done yet! Several more days of wintry weather is forecast throughout the inter-mountain west!

It's no wonder their slogan is the greatest snow on earth!

Will Utah be Blogworthy for The Northeast Quadrant?

If you've been following along you know The Northeast Quadrant is going on the road late next week. That's right, we're takin' the show to Utah (well somewhat -- we'll still blog from the east coast too)! So you can imagine the joy we felt when surfing the updates on Facebook today and saw this posting from The Weather Channel:

"If you live in the west or if you're visiting, take some time and read these Special Weather Statements from the National Weather Service. Pay close attention to Hanford, CA, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Flagstaff."

Here's what we cam across when clicked on Salt Lake City:

...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER PATTERN CHANGE BEGINNING EARLY NEXT WEEK...

AFTER A SEVERAL WEEK PERIOD CHARACTERIZED BY LONG STRETCHES OF HIGH PRESSURE FOLLOWED BY THE PASSAGE OF WEAK STORM SYSTEMS... THE WEATHER PATTERN APPEARS TO BE READY TO SHIFT LATE THIS WEEKEND.

THE WEATHER WILL REMAIN QUIET THROUGH TOMORROW ACROSS THE REGION AS ONE LAST AREA OF HIGH PRESSURE MOVES ACROSS THE REGION. HAZE AND FOG WILL PERSIST ACROSS THE VALLEYS OF NORTHERN UTAH AS THE INVERSION STRENGTHENS THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

A SERIES OF MOIST PACIFIC STORM SYSTEMS WILL BEGIN TO IMPACT THE REGION STARTING ON MONDAY AND LASTING THROUGH MUCH OF THE WORK WEEK. THE HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION WILL POTENTIALLY AFFECT SOUTHERN UTAH... THOUGH MUCH OF THE STATE WILL END UP RECEIVING A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF PRECIPITATION WHEN TOTALS ARE TALLIED AT THE END OF THE WEEK.

INCREASING SOUTHERLY WINDS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PATTERN CHANGE WILL BRING AN END TO THE FOG AND HAZE ACROSS NORTHERN UTAH BY EARLY NEXT WEEK. LOCATIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN QUITE COLD OF LATE INCLUDING THE UINTA BASIN AND NEAR GREEN RIVER WILL TREND WARMER. TEMPERATURES IN THE VALLEYS WILL LIKELY SUPPORT A MIXTURE OF RAIN AND SNOW DURING THE WEEK. PERIODS OF SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL ARE LIKELY ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF UTAH... FOCUSING ACROSS THE SOUTH.

BE SURE TO MONITOR WEATHER FORECASTS THROUGH THE WEEKEND AS THE PATTERN CHANGE APPROACHES FOR NEXT WEEK.

Well, it's looking likely we'll have some good blog posts while we're on the road. Stay tuned!