Why is this reversal so unusual and what does the future hold?

SALT LAKE CITY — The winter inversion season typically begins in November in northern Utah, but the current episode kicked off with an ugly and somewhat unusual bang.

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“The magnitude and duration of this current event is somewhat atypical for this time of year,” said Jonathan Meyer, deputy state climatologist at the Utah State Climate Center. “Typically we see this level of inversion influence in January and February.”

Meyer sees a general trend in inversions due to less snow cover on the valley floors.

“With less snowpack, we may experience less severe inversions in the future, but with twice as many people living in these inverted air conditions, pollutant emissions have skyrocketed in recent decades,” he said.

Population growth offsets the effects of less snow and warmer winters and increases the intensity of inversion events on the Wasatch Front.

To combat the current inversion that has blanketed the valleys for days, a weak storm system moving in over the weekend will provide some relief, but what about the long-term forecast for this year’s season?

“More of these types of nickel and dime precipitation events could become more common, which is good news because when these move through, they tend to wash out the reverse air conditions and we kind of reset the valley air to cleaner things a little bit,” explained Meyer.

Even if the future inversion outlook no longer looks so blurry, looking at the valleys under the current state of pollution serves as a reminder.

“In some ways, I think the inversions are beneficial because they give us a tangible experience of the amount of pollutants that are emitted just from our daily activities,” Meyer said, “and I hope that helps a little.” “Social trend towards more environmentally friendly transport options.”

The Utah State Climate Center would like to remind residents and visitors of a helpful tool on its website that provides long-term forecasts of the state’s inversion events.