Just several more days of bad air

 TL;DR:

Warm and inversion building until Friday, when low-pressure and precipitation will clean up the air. 

Nowcast:

Surface temperatures in the valley/Wasatch Mountains. From https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/

Highs in the upper 40s and even lower 50s throughout the Salt Lake valley. These higher temperatures can be attributed to El Nino conditions over the Pacific Ocean, which brings warmer, drier conditions to this part of the country. As the high-pressure ridge continues to sit over Utah, air quality will get worse due to the inversion building up. As you can see by the graph below, which measures PM 2.5 aerosols, the air quality is getting worse. Once the next system arrives, the air should be cleaned up by the low-pressure.

PM 2.5 Measurements from https://utahaq.chpc.utah.edu/

Short term:

These warmer conditions will carry on throughout the next several days, causing air quality to get worse. There is relief coming though, as by Thursday night/Friday morning, there is moisture coming from the west. This moisture will cause the inversion to dissipate, cleaning up the air. It should also bring some snow to the valley and the mountains. As we get closer to then, we can start to make predictions about the amount of snowfall and if it'll rain in the valleys but snow in the mountains.

Precipitation/Snow predictions at Alta. From https://weather.utah.edu/

Long term:

After the moisture on Thursday/Friday, there should be more chances for precipitation throughout the weekend and leading into next week, as atmospheric rivers will drench California and eventually make their way to Utah. This precipitation will bring relief from the inversion air and give us colder temperatures. Low 30s, upper 20s for possible highs over the next week, it's a return to winter after this brief spring intermission. This news article gives some basic information about atmospheric rivers. It's mostly focused on California, but it can be applied to Utah as well.

Backcountry comments:

If you will be traveling in the backcountry make sure you have the proper equipment and know before you go. For the whole avalanche forecast and all things avalanche head over to our friends at the Utah Avalanche Center.