Hi. welcome to Utah. today, according to http://airnow.gov, salt lake city has the worst air quality in the nation. it’s like being hooked up to an exhaust ventilator. The air literally smells and tastes awful.
Here is what a toxic death blanket of killer smog looks like when approaching salt lake from the south. Visibly disgusting.
I’ve added a blue arrow for greater visibility.
Inversion (in which a deviation in the normal change in air temperature + altitude). This leads to Pollution: Bad air gets trapped in the valley and just sort of hangs around making everything miserable.
In this picture, between the trees, you should be able to see parts of downtown (I took this on a hill above town). But you can’t, because of the smog (not fog). There hasn’t been a glimpse of blue sky all day, but hopefully an approaching winter snow (with 5 or so inches of snow expected) will pop atmospheric cap and disperse the badness. (Also, SNOW!)
