SALT LAKE CITY — Utah continues to have some of the worst air quality in the U.S. amid the latest temperature inversion impacting the Wasatch Front, which began shortly after Thanksgiving.
Inversions form when cold air sinks into the valley and warm air moves on top of it while high pressure builds up in the area. It essentially creates a lid that traps pollution in the air, producing a haze that can last a few days or weeks, as what happened at least once in the 1980s.
In this case, air quality across the Wasatch Front ranged from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups to unhealthy for everyone yet again on Thursday, according to the KSL Air Quality Network. With an air quality score of 124, IQAir listed Salt Lake City as having the 22nd worst air quality in the world Thursday afternoon, and the worst in the U.S. among the bigger cities it tracked…