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SALT LAKE CITY — Thick smoke from wildfires in other Western states continues to waft into Utah and foul the state's air. Utah has escaped the worst of the fire season so far, but the smoke from the raging fires to the west is wafting over the region. Fortunately, the people who monitor Utah's air quality say it looks worse than it is.
Bo Call, an air-monitoring manager with the Division of Air Quality, shared the numbers on particulate pollution. Tuesday's levels are half the particulate concentration that would be considered a health threat.
"We are higher than what you would expect this time of year," said Call. "But, we're not that high."
The numbers are in the moderate range for particulates, he said.
"We're not going to tell people to stay inside," he said. "It's not that bad. It's just elevated, and it looks bad."
Look out across the valley, and the mountains on the other side disappear in the smoke. Visibility is down to 10 miles. In past summers, like in 2007 when the Milford Flat fire burned more than a third of a million acres in Utah, visibility was cut to 2 or 3 miles.
Large fires in WA, OR, ID and MT, combined with northwest flow has made the skies hazy across UT & CO. #utwx#cowxpic.twitter.com/jQ67uhxHeK — NWS Grand Junction (@NWSGJT) August 18, 2015
"We are nowhere near that at this point," said Kevin Barjenbruch, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He said the smoke will likely shroud the state through the rest of the week.
Across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and California, dozens of fires have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced more than a thousand people to flee their neighborhoods. Right now, west to northwesterly wind currents are blowing that smoke to Utah.
"Temperatures don't really come into play," said Barjenbruch. "We're just a victim of the northwest flow pushing the smoke into the region."
He says it will stay that way until the winds change.
"Certainly for the next few days. I think at least into Sunday this week we're going to see some smoke across the region," said the meteorologist.
"It's going to stay this way until we get a good persistent rain in the west," said Call.
