Utah’s Weather By Ashley Gray

Utah is notorious for it’s crazy weather. It could be 75 degrees one day and a blizzard the next. You really just never know what you’re going to get living here. I’m going to talk about some of the things that are unique about our weather as well as our changing climate.

Utah’s Weather is Influenced by Mountains, Near AND Far Our mountains help to lift invisible rivers of air and wring out moisture from the sky. Far away mountain ranges to our north and west often grab their share of the moisture, creating our desert climates. But when big Pacific storms manage to break through, we can get drenched. Also, the Rockies to the east, shield us from the bitter cold in the center of the country

What is an Inversion? Sometime, usually in January, you can count on Utah having an inversion. Don’t know what that is? Well normally air closer to the ground is warmer than air higher up. But in winter, high air pressure systems create inversions that trap cold air near the ground. When that happens, pollution in the air gets trapped too. Since the surrounding mountains block out winds that could blow pollutants away, layers of smog can cover the valley for days.

What is the “Lake Effect?” We owe the “greatest snow on Earth” to the Great Salt Lake. Since the lake remains ice free during the winter, cold air flowing over its warmer surface gets a boost upwards. This extra lift from the lake, combined with rising air currents over the Wasatch, leads to lots of fresh powder in the mountains. The next slide is a picture I took at the Natural History Museum demonstrating how the lake effect works.

When it Rains, it Pours As mentioned before, we are known for upside down weather. On the next slides you will see two separate graphs, each taken by me from the Natural History Museum, showing you some of our annual precipitation and temperature rates.

What Secrets Does Snow Contain? Climate change takes place over hundreds of thousands of years. It was started by small adjustments in the Earth’s orbit and amplified by release and re-absorption of greenhouse gases as well as retreat and advance of continental ice sheets. The graph you’ll see on the next slide, which is from a picture I took at the Natural History Museum was generated from data contained in the Vostok core, one of the longest ever drilled. Ice Cores are samples taken from deep accumulations of ice and snow over many years. They contain extensive climate information, because of material trapped in the snow each year. Wind blown dust, ash and bubbles of atmospheric gas can provide scientists with information about temperature and precipitation changes, ocean volume, carbon and other gas levels, etc. The depth of the core determines the length of the record.

Global Warming in Utah Observations of weather fluctuations over the past century show a rising trend in temperature around the world, and Utah is no exception. Scientists expect this trend to continue as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere build up from the burning of fossil fuels and forests all around the world. Rising temperatures in Utah will most likely lead to more rain than snow and other changes that could seriously affect water resources.

Climate Change in Salt Lake City Salt Lake City’s climate has been steadily warming since 1880, partly because of natural factors and largely because of human activity. You will notice the irregular dip in temperature in the graph on the next slide. This was caused by harmful emissions of coal-plant soot and sulfate aerosols being released into the atmosphere, in turn blocking the sun and cooling the Earth. Thankfully, in the mid 1970’s regulations required coal-fired power plants to remove those elements from their emissions. Since they have been banned, temperatures have increased significantly.

What Could Globally Warming Mean for Utah? Climate change could increase the duration and intensity of droughts, transforming lakes, rivers and wetlands into dry areas of sand and dirt, in turning altering our regions plant life

I really enjoyed learning all about our weather and climate when I visited The Natural History Museum. I also learned the importance of protecting our resources because even though global warming is affected by natural causes, us humans play a big part in it as well. If we want to continue to enjoy this state and all that it has to offer, we need to protect it.

Sources All of my information and pictures were collected from the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah I apologize some of the pictures were not as clear as I would have liked