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Dina Freedman ReportingIt's hazy and hot outside, but it is anything out of the ordinary for Utah. You can feel the heat and you can see the ever present haze outside, but as of now, it's nothing major to panic about.
June actually averages nine days at 90 or above and we've been a little warm with 15 days so far at 90 or above. The warmest day was not today, it was actually June 7th at 99 degrees in Salt Lake.
Hot and dry has been the rule, but here in the city we're actually at our average of rainfall. The problem was, it all came down in only two days!
The other story is the smoke for a few places, especially in the south, and the haze around the north. What you're seeing is actually just your typical air pollution type of haze from sources like cars, along with some smoke mixed in from fires to the west.
Donna Kemp Spangler, Dept. of Environmental Quality: "A lot of people look outside and they see that the air is really icky and awful and ugly. And their first instinct is that they don't want to go outside. And you can still take your evening walk, take your morning run or whatever you do, especially if you are relatively healthy. The health standards have nto reached the level where, you know, it's particularly bad."
Donna says to use common sense, and if you're asthmatic or sensitive to air pollution, stay inside and take it easy.
What we really need are a couple of things, a front and some rain. If we don't get either of those two soon, we're going to be in for more heat and haze for the upcoming holiday.
