SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Happy Sunday, Utah! Our inversion conditions will stick around as high pressure remains in place over much of the Western United States.
For Sunday, we’ll see plenty of sunshine with hazy skies and unhealthy air qualities continuing. While our conditions will still remain hazy along with our inversion set up, conditions look to be slightly better compared to last week as cooler air will gradually stream from a northwesterly flow. This will help lift the inversion through Wednesday, which will help improve air quality somewhat. For SW Utah, a few more clouds will be in store, but conditions will remain dry with temperatures warming above average in the mid and upper 50’s with a few 60’s possible by Monday. Northern Utah will remain dry heading into Martin Luther King Jr. Day with temperatures above average but slightly cooler for areas under the inversion with highs in the low to mid 40’s.
As for our air quality impacts, while they will be not as severe as last week, they still will be in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category for Salt Lake, Davis, and Utah counties today. As for the rest of the Wasatch Front and Wasatch Back, these areas will be in the “moderate” category. Forecasts do have air qualities improving going into Monday and Tuesday with only Salt Lake County in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups”.
This slight change in the pattern also allows for a Northwest flow to set up and continue over the Beehive State next week. High pressure sets up again next week, but with our NW flow there’s a chance for a noticeably weaker inversion set up with the chance of air quality impacts being less severe. As for this weekend, we still have “unhealthy air for sensitive groups” forecast in Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. The rest of the Wasatch Front, Cache Valley, Box Elder county, Uintah County, Duchesne County, the Wasatch Back and Tooele County will likely see “moderate” air and an elevated amount of particulate matter…