Air quality will improve over the weekend due to the approaching storm

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Happy Friday, Utah! Thanks to strong valley reversals, the haze will persist this afternoon. The Utah Department of Environmental Quality has issued an orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) air quality warning for Salt Lake, Utah and Davis counties through Saturday.

So what is the end result? Air quality will improve over the weekend with an approaching storm.

Conditions in Tooele County are expected to worsen from yellow to orange by Saturday. Until a cold front arrives on Sunday, little change in overall temperatures is expected over the weekend. This will provide relief from inversions and poor air quality.

The timing of the first cold front determines when the air clears. A cold trough of low pressure is moving in, with colder air likely arriving across the northern Wasatch Front Sunday morning and the southern half by early afternoon. By Sunday night, all trough inversions should be gone and air quality will improve. Little moisture is expected with the first cold front, with some light rain/snow showers expected.

The cold front Sunday night into Monday morning could produce some snowfall of about 1 to 3 inches in the northern mountain areas and possibly 4 to 5 inches in the upper Cottonwoods. Northern valleys, including Salt Lake City, may see up to an inch of dust Monday morning and into the afternoon.

Snow lovers, we need some good snow dances! There are no signs of heavy snowfall next week. Most systems just get by with little moisture.

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