this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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What's an inversion, in this context?
Salt Lake City exists in a big bowl surrounded by a bunch of mountains. When the seasons change, the changing temperature traps some air in the bowl. I don't know the specifics behind it, but what you end up with is thick nasty smog that hangs over the entire city in a gross haze for days to weeks at a time.
I'm not native to Utah but I spent a little over a year there for school, and I got to experience the inversion. Looking out from the balcony on my apartment in broad daylight, I was unable to see the street. It just faded out into nasty brown fog like Silent Hill but grosser. People were wearing masks if they needed to go outside.
Yeah, it got pretty bad some days. Thankfully a good snowfall was enough to clear it up.
Oh gross, yeah I'll pass
It's gotten worse as well, the lake is drying up and spreading arsenic in the air too.
https://deq.utah.gov/daq/inversions
Basically what skulblaka said. The air quality is normally not bad in terms of urban influence but when the inversion hits it creates a bubble which basically traps it all in the Salt Lake valley until the temperature changes or a strong enough wind comes in to "pop" the bubble.