Right On Cue, Salt Lake City's First Inversion Of The Season Arrives
Utah’s inversion season officially started Nov. 1, and, almost on cue, Salt Lake County’s first inversion of 2019-2020 began building that afternoon. Over the weekend, state regulators advised Wasatch Front resident to take voluntary actions to reduce the emissions that contribute to the thickening fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, visibly piling up in the haze seen Monday over the Salt Lake Valley.
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For Salt Lake County residents, that call triggered a mandatory burn ban that is expected to remain in effect for the next several days while stagnant weather persists. Warm air above the valley is holding down cooler air near the ground, trapping emissions from tailpipes, smokestacks, farms and landfills.
"Outside Salt Lake County, we ask that you not burn wood because it contributes to poor air quality, especially particulate pollution, those small particles that get lodged in lung tissue," said Donna Spangler, spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. "It's being proactive because we are already in an inversion. Even if the air quality isn't near the health standard, we know based on forecasting we are not going to get weather conditions that would remove the pollution. Every day we are in an inversion we are going to continue to build."
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https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2019/11/04/has-utahs-inversion/