In the thick of Wasatch Front air quality problems last week, many residents looked out their windows and asked: Is it really so polluted I can’t see across the street? Or is that just fog?
The answer is complicated. Fog is mostly what obscures visibility. But pollution is at least partly what is causing the fog.
After an inversion settled into the valley early last week, visibility plunged, and Salt Lake County exceeded federal standards for small particulate pollution on several consecutive days, climbing into the “unhealthy” or red air quality range. A weak cold front then blew much of the hazy, polluted air out Thursday, and with storms forecast over the weekend, Utah’s air should stay clearer for at least the next few days — until the next soupy inversion sets in.