Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Inversion layer or smog??

Apparently Dave and Christian weren't just slagging on Salt Lake City (see post below about their trip to the Outdoor Retailers shindig last Friday). Others are talking about the haze hanging over what normally is one pretty city with a fab view.

From the AP:
SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah’s world-class mountain peaks have been barely visible at times from the floor of the Salt Lake valley. A winter storm that won’t quit? No, it’s nasty pollution that just won’t blow away.

Northern Utah’s valleys have been smothered by an “inversion,” a blanket of warm air that keeps cold air close to the ground and traps everything: car exhaust, factory emissions, even hard-to-see particles from furnaces or a cozy fireplace.

Together they form a cloudy shroud that has been described as soup, gunk, smog -- and a few other titles that can’t be printed.

Salt Lake and Davis counties, home to more than 1 million people, have been under a “red” alert for 16 days in January. Some schools have kept kids off the playground. There were only 3 red days posted for Salt Lake and Davis counties last winter, compared to 25 this season.

What's the remedy for all this? Just as Dave noted, a stiff wind or storm to send the stuff elsewhere. (Geez, this sounds like my childhood in Southern California.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's good to breathe our shit once in a while. It reminds us of what we pump into the atmosphere each and every day, why its making the planet sick, and why we can't afford to ignore the problem forever.

Dave Philipps said...

Lou Dawson is also blogging about the smog on his site, www.wildsnow.com.

One thought, we call it an "inversion" and blame the air temperature. Really, it's pollution. Us car-driving city dwellers are to blame.

Anonymous said...

It's probably a thick cloud of smug. Was George Clooney in town for Sundance?

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