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Monday marks the fourth day in a row that smoke from the Western fires blanketed Utah, dropping air quality levels from Salt Lake City to one of the worst among cities in the world.
Even meteorologists are stunned by the extent of unhealthy smoke from wildfires blown from out of state in recent days.
“I know there have been summers where we have had smoke, but on the ground this thick?… This is the thickest smoke I have ever seen,” said KSL meteorologist Grant. Weyman. “We were seeing the numbers on the scale (of the Air Quality Index) well above 200. Even on a bad day when we get these temperature inversions in January, I’ve never seen it this way. high. That puts things in perspective. “
WorldIQ Air on Friday ranked Salt Lake City’s air quality as the worst among some major cities in the world. He was knocked out of first place on the questionable list this weekend by Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Russian media report that forest fires are also responsible for poor air quality. In fact, scientists from NASA’s Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer reported on Friday that smoke from forest fires from Russia’s Siberian region had even reached the North Pole in what “appears to be a first in history. registered “.
Denver also began to rise on the WorldIQ Air charts this weekend as soon as smoke from wildfires in California and Oregon reached Mile High City. Air quality in Salt Lake City even reached the fifth worst on the list Monday morning.
Forecasts from the Air Quality Division of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality placed Salt Lake County air quality levels unhealthy for all groups. He also listed the air quality levels as unhealthy for sensitive groups in the rest of the state. KSL meteorologist Kevin Eubank said there may be pockets of southern Utah capable of escaping some of the higher-level smoke readings, but the division predicts air quality levels at least unhealthy for sensitive groups in most of Utah the next few days.
Relief from that unhealthy smoke could finally be in sight by midweek.
Eubank said a weather pattern from the south is expected to arrive in Utah on Wednesday or Thursday. The model could also bring monsoon humidity back to Utah. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center released a six-to-ten-day forecast on Sunday that lists a 33% chance of rain for most of the southern half of Utah between Sunday and August 18.
The model also changes the wind direction in favor of Utah.
“It’s the southern flow that will bring us the rains and actually remove the smoke,” Eubank said.
As the smoke clears and parts of southern Utah could start to rain mid-week, Weyman said temperatures would once again reach nearly 100 degrees on the Wasatch front to end the week.
It also means Salt Lake City could approach the record 100 degree-days in one year in the weather services record book. There have already been 19 100-degree days in Salt Lake City this year. The record is 21, which has happened twice in the 147 years the weather service has tracked weather data.
Full forecasts for areas of Utah are available at the KSL Weather Center. Current air quality reports for the Wasatch Front areas, as well as stations in northern, eastern and southern Utah, are available on the KSL Air Quality Network.
Utah firefighters sent to Dixie Fire
Twenty-two Utah firefighters and five state engines were dispatched to the massive Dixie Fire Monday morning, according to the Utah Emergency Management Division. The blaze, which has devastated communities in northern California, continues to spread and is the biggest contributor to the smoke that still blankets Utah.
Federal agencies listed it at nearly 490,000 acres, or nearly 765 square miles, as of Monday morning. It is listed as 21% content.
This is the fourth group of Utah firefighters sent to the Western Fires this year. Teams from the Unified Fire Authority, the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Cedar City, Draper, Murray, Orem, Provo, and West Valley City fire departments make up the team tasked with addressing the fire. The team are expected to spend the next 16 days away from home, including two full weeks fighting the blaze.
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