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SALT LAKE CITY — Brace yourselves, inversion season is here.
Many across Utah’s most populated counties got their first taste of the pollution trapped by the inversion this weekend — and relief isn’t expected until at least Wednesday. That's when the Utah Division of Air Quality projects the next "moderate" air quality day will be, due to a storm that is forecasted to push through the northern part of the state.
Poor air quality isn’t a new issue for the state, but it’s certainly become a recurring topic — so much so that the state’s proposed 2020 budget includes $100 million set aside to tackle the problem.
It’s one of those issues that immediately rises back to the forefront each winter.
When smoke from wildfires covered the state back in August, I strolled through Salt Lake City to recreate some of the previous photos of the city I had taken over the past few years. The difference was extremely noticeable then. Mountains vanished from the skyline and details of downtown buildings were stripped away by the haze.
So how much does the pollution from the inversion change the cityscape?
I went back through the city Saturday to try the same before-and-after photo experiment to truly illustrate the difference during an inversion. In Salt Lake County, Particulate Matter 2.5, the air pollutant that causes health concerns, reached around 40 micrograms per cubic meter air that afternoon, which is commonly referred to an "orange" air quality day by the Division of Air Quality.
The visual results were even more stunning.
KSL Building
The KSL Building at the Triad Center, one of the city’s more western buildings, offers a great view of downtown Salt Lake City, the Wasatch Front, the Oquirrh Mountains and Capitol Hill. While the city and Capitol Hill are still visible on bad air quality days, the mountains aren’t.
Facing east
From this view, you should be able to see the foothills beyond the Salt Lake Temple, as seen in this first photo taken after a Thanksgiving storm.
Facing southeast
The same concept goes here. You can typically see all of Salt Lake County’s distinctive peaks from the building — on a clean air day.
Facing southwest
Here, you should be able to see the Oquirrh Mountains without a problem.
Triad Center parking garage
Again, you should be able to see distant mountains, even on a cloudy day.
Memory Grove
This spot, from the western part of the Avenues above the Memory Grove glen, allows visitors a beautiful view of downtown Salt Lake and it’s a great place to see a sunset behind the Utah Capitol.
Facing west
On a clean air day, you can see Antelope Island and Stansbury Island, which are pictured in the distance in the first photo. Typically, you can even see planes taking off from the Salt Lake City International Airport. All of those disappear from view during a bad air day.
Facing south
From this angle, visitors still see downtown Salt Lake City, but can’t see the Oquirrh Mountains.
Primary Children’s Hospital
The hospital’s parking lot is a great place to watch a sunset behind the downtown skyline — on a good air quality day. However, at approximately 20 blocks of distance, the downtown buildings even become a bit hazy.
Red Butte Canyon
From 100 feet of the parking lot gate, visitors get a good view of a small peak in the distance. That becomes difficult to see on an orange air day.
Red Butte Skyline Nature Trail
This is an enjoyable trail with, as the name states, all sorts of nature. In fact, I stumbled upon a few coyotes while walking it on Saturday. However, perhaps its best quality is a breathtaking view of the Salt Lake City skyline, the valley, the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island and Stansbury Island.
On Saturday, I tried to recreate one of the first pictures I ever took of the city, but I couldn’t even see a faint outline of the city buildings from the trail.
Here's one way you can see the buildings.
To illustrate SLC's air quality this weekend, I went up to Red Butte on Saturday (an orange day) and took a photo of the city skyline. I had to increase dehaze to the max (+100) to actually find the buildings. #utwxpic.twitter.com/tltSDqXeNe
— Carter Williams (@cwilliamsKSL) December 10, 2018