Dust on snow is different than AQ though. My point is that these big events are episodic. Trends are hard to detect. We have had big dust events in the past. I'd be interested to see what the average PM2.5 and PM10 trends look like, but for these big events, a trend is probably hard to detect.
Work examining the impact of dust on melt in the central Wasatch shows high year-to-year variability with no significant trend from 2001–2023 (Lang et al. 2025; agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...)
E.g.: The exposed GSL bed has grown in importance, but is not the only dust source. The Milford Flat fire scar was once a big producer. Below is a movie of a dust event in 2010 looking west over the Salt Lake Valley. Much of the pre-frontal dust was from that scar. It's not a big producer today.
Understood, although I'd like to see a graph illustrating that.
My perspective is of episodic dust events. They exhibit a g lot of variability from year to year making trends hard to detect.
Plus, there are many dust sources in Utah, but their importance varies spatially and from year to year.
You said spring was a time when air quality was usually good.
I was merely pointing out that dust storms are not unusual here and storms like this one motivated our work 15 years ago.
Episodic dust storms have been around for a while. There have been big events in the past. Many dust sources in Great Basin. journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...
In this case the dust in the Salt Lake Valley is from origins to the south and southwest and not exposed lake bed.
Hot, dry, dusty south wind hellscape over the Salt Lake Valley this afternoon
LIve now with @professorpowder.bsky.social on the #unidata shutdown www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gw8...
NSF-supported Unidata announced that almost their entire staff will be furloughed as of today. This is a huge threat to weather education and research at universities--Unidata provides crucial realtime data feeds of weather data, including satellite, radar, and observations.
On April 30th, NSF halted funding for Unidata, an organization critical for the sharing and analysis of atmospheric and related datasets.
Unidata has been and is a transformative scientific organization. For more on its history/impacts see
wasatchweatherweenies.blogspot.com/2025/05/nsf-...
The latest on a new ski resort in the Oquirrhs
wasatchweatherweenies.blogspot.com/2025/04/new-...
New Central Wasatch Commission Dashboard. they are looking for comments. cwc.utah.gov/environmenta...
Trump-Doge preparing to end the Keeling curve monitoring (that has tracked atmospheric CO2 since 1950). This attack on science would amount to a crime against humanity I think!
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
There's a big difference between academic administration and academic leadership. We seem to have a lot of the former right now and not enough of the latter.
Snowfall at Salt Lake City International Airport so far this season (12.7") is the 3rd lowest on record through March 10th behind 2014/15 (9.6") and 1933/34 (12.3").
We will, however, add to these totals starting later this week.
I don't really work on ice nucleation but low density snow falls in lake effect systems downstream of freshwater lakes so I think it would be a minor effect
Has the University of Utah announced early retirement incentive packages to deal with the budget cuts?
Asking for a friend...
"Eliminating jobs in this vital and necessary agency threatens the health of our waterways, lakes and oceans, which we rely on for food, commerce and recreation.” - Al Roker #SaveNOAA
Sad.
"Besides the direct impact of radiosondes on weather forecasts, they also have an indirect effect as a result of being used as reference data – helping to bias-correct satellite sounding and aircraft temperature data, especially in the troposphere." - ECMWF
Low population, but our biggest state with major weather impacts from the fishing to snow-safety communities
alaskapublic.org/news/politic...
"Two of the probationary employees who had been on the job for less than two years were flight director...This is particularly problematic since every hurricane hunter mission is required to carry a flight director."
yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/03/noaa...
We're behind you 💯
💪
On a white background, the traditional NOAA logo reads "Save NOAA."
@noaa.gov provides lifesaving science, service and stewardship to the nation. #SaveNOAA is a group of terminated NOAA employees fighting for reinstatement to continue to deliver Americans these critical services.
#SaveNOAA #NOAAStrong #NOAA #Science #Fed #FedEmployees #Federal #Layoffs
The included Bennett Building also includes the offices for National Weather Service Western Region Headquarters, including key scientific and technology support personnel
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