SLC Winter inversions.. Their affect on surrounding areas. (Provo, Sandy: house, live in)

[jonwb]

Hi... considering a move to the Pleasant Grove/Provo area. 62 with wife and two sons in their 20s majoring in tech and business. Looking to downsize to just enough "home" to house them until they get their careers going. My wife and I are "two mile a day" hikers and nature enthusiasts.

Question... Is SLC going through a Winter inversion now, and can it affect the southern areas I mentioned?

In looking at live webcams of downtown, I see a brownish cloud over Salt Lake but the Brigham Young and Utah Lake cams 45 miles south are comparitively clearer... like really nice!

Is this common for the area?

[markg91359]

Originally Posted by jonwb

Hi... considering a move to the Pleasant Grove/Provo area. 62 with wife and two sons in their 20s majoring in tech and business. Looking to downsize to just enough "home" to house them until they get their careers going. My wife and I are "two mile a day" hikers and nature enthusiasts.

Question... Is SLC going through a Winter inversion now, and can it affect the southern areas I mentioned?

In looking at live webcams of downtown, I see a brownish cloud over Salt Lake but the Brigham Young and Utah Lake cams 45 miles south are comparitively clearer... like really nice!

Is this common for the area?

Inversions are a problem all along the Wasatch Front which includes Utah County. It may be a bit less of a problem than in Salt Lake County, but I wouldn't plan on it. The population in the area you mention is growing rapidly. There really is no escaping inversions anywhere from at least Provo to Ogden.

[COcheesehead]

I was just in Provo/Lehi area and the inversion was bad. Reminded me of summer wild fire smoke. Hard to even see the nearby mountains. I saw people out running and cringed a bit.
It’s a beautiful valley, but the inversion would put a crimp in wanting to be outside.

[jonwb]

Thanks all... hard to tell from a webcam perspective I guess. We have friends that live in Magna. They've been there for just under a year. They haven't complained about air quality, but being younger, maybe they're not noticing it as much. We need to be a bit more conscious of our health, and even though the beauty of the state is obvious, the inversions and future toxicity concerns of Salt Lake have us on the fence.

[markg91359]

Originally Posted by jonwb

Thanks all... hard to tell from a webcam perspective I guess. We have friends that live in Magna. They've been there for just under a year. They haven't complained about air quality, but being younger, maybe they're not noticing it as much. We need to be a bit more conscious of our health, and even though the beauty of the state is obvious, the inversions and future toxicity concerns of Salt Lake have us on the fence.

The topic of inversions gets a fair amount of discussion here. I would say the consensus is the problem is a serious one and getting worse. There is little political will to pass laws or regulations that would lessen the problem. This winter the weather has been more active and it blows the pollution out of here temporarily, but it comes right back.

If this is an important issue to you I would seriously think about whether moving to the area is right for you.

[kavm]

It is also worth noting that different people react to inversions differently. We know of at least 4 families that moved away because they could not deal with the pollution. Everyone is affected as the effect of PM2.5 is cumulative across the lifetime. If and when someone reach their limit and respond to it can vary widely.

[ejisme]

How far west does the inversion settle in. Is Tooele outside of the inversion zone? That would be a close in suburb with easy I80 access into SLC. Otherwise, if air quality is an issue you need to go up one of the canyons to get out of the inversion. I've noticed coming down the canyon that the east edge of Sandy tends to be mostly out of the inversions, say east of HWY 210. Not a lot of housing there, but if you find something you might be in better shape there.

[jonwb]

Originally Posted by ejisme

How far west does the inversion settle in. Is Tooele outside of the inversion zone?

My original question pertained to the Provo area. I got the impression that it wasn't far south enough to avoid air quality issues. I'm not sure Tooele would qualify either.

[kaytidid]

Originally Posted by ejisme

How far west does the inversion settle in. Is Tooele outside of the inversion zone? That would be a close in suburb with easy I80 access into SLC. Otherwise, if air quality is an issue you need to go up one of the canyons to get out of the inversion. I've noticed coming down the canyon that the east edge of Sandy tends to be mostly out of the inversions, say east of HWY 210. Not a lot of housing there, but if you find something you might be in better shape there.

No. Tooele isn’t outside of the inversion.

[markg91359]

Originally Posted by ejisme

How far west does the inversion settle in. Is Tooele outside of the inversion zone? That would be a close in suburb with easy I80 access into SLC. Otherwise, if air quality is an issue you need to go up one of the canyons to get out of the inversion. I've noticed coming down the canyon that the east edge of Sandy tends to be mostly out of the inversions, say east of HWY 210. Not a lot of housing there, but if you find something you might be in better shape there.

I appreciate the fact you are trying to be helpful to this poster. However, the poster needs to be aware of the fact that if somehow he did find housing that was out of the inversion that every time he traveled to work or anywhere for that matter he would still be in it. I'm also imagining how expensive a house that high on the mountain and out of the inversion might be. It wouldn't be cheap. Does the poster have a housing budget of $800K to $1,000,000?

The simple fact is that the inversion is a problem that is slowly getting worse. There is no running from it really anywhere on the Wasatch Front. If you are going to move here its just an issue you had better be prepared to deal with.