Thanksgiving Inversion

Interesting air quality event around the Salt Lake Valley over Thanksgiving. I had the chance to get a window seat and flight path out of KSLC that wrapped around the Oquirrh mountains:

Background air quality / particulate matter (PM) map via https://utahaq.chpc.utah.edu/, annotated flight path marked with red arrow 

Webcams installed at the University of Utah campus on top of the William Browning Building showed less than ideal air quality that morning: 

UofU / William Browning Building (WBB) / current home of the Atmospheric Sciences Dept.      Rooftop webcam, looking WEST, 10am local. 

Ground monitoring stations throughout the Salt Lake Valley measured PM2.5 values between 10-20 µg/m3 on the second day of this inversion period:

 

 From the sky, this event was widespread through the Salt Lake Valley:

 The cold air pool wrapped around the Oquirrhs into the Tooele valley:

 

 Conditions improved the next day as a low pressure system blew into the valley and cleared out the stagnant air: 

Real-time provisional data measured at the UofU / Mountain Meteorology weather station:        MesoWest - MTMET

 Unfortunately, not the only inversion we've had this Winter. Not the worst for maximum PM either:

 

 Our group has a variety of real-time research tools to study, understand, and analyze these events. Click around any of the links above and/or check out https://horel.chpc.utah.edu/ for more information.