Yucky Air

I lived in Provo for part of my childhood. I attended BYU. I don't remember the air ever being this bad until we moved back here a few years ago. Provo and Salt Lake suffer from "inversion" which basically means the mountains trap in dirty air particles and make the air soupy. Add to that one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S....and, well... This winter, our kids have had indoor recess more than half of January because of the air (and sometimes the cold). We don't feel comfortable exercising in it and when you walk outside, you can actually "taste" the air. Yuck!

It is so sad to me when our beautiful mountains disappear and we are cautioned to stay indoors. As of right now, our air quality in Provo is WORSE THAN BEIJING!

PROVO: (169 PM2.5)

BEIJING: (141 PM2.5)

Here is an interesting article about it: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=23668036&nid=481

And here are some pictures from this January:

Salt Lake last week:

 Cascade (the closest mountain to our house...we live right by the base of it) during inversion:

 Cascade on a "clean air" day: