My poor lungs...

This is what they have been suffering!

 Yes, INVERSION...gross! I came across this blog posting that very clearly explains inversion. I want to share because I think it is interesting and I think all to often people don't understand what inversion actually is, nor do they do their part to reduce the smog, by carpooling, taking public transit, or just reducing amount of daily driving.

Summarizing though...Normally during the day, the ground gets heated up by the sun. The hot ground warms up the air immediately above it, and that warmed air rises. But in winter, with snow on the ground and a low sun-angle, the ground is often colder than the air and acts to cool the air immediately above. The cool air is dense and so it doesn’t rise; it sinks, hugging the floor of the valley. When the weather is “nice”, with clear skies and high pressure, warmer air in the sky above, the warmer air sits on top of the cold air, which can’t rise, holding it in place in the valley below. During an inversion, freezing water vapor from a water source- such as snow- is produced by evaporation. The water vapor can’t rise up to dissipate or form clouds or whatever, and instead and fills the cold-air layer with a chilly mist. The damp air serves to amplify the chill, especially for us Westerners, who are accustomed to a ”dry cold.”

 The trapped compounds are known as secondary pollutants...they’re not the stuff that comes directly out of your tailpipe, but rather the result of the sunlight-fueled reactions between the tailpipe emissions and other stuff in the atmosphere.There are other sources of pollutants that contribute to bad air conditions during inversions, but cars account for the lion’s share by far. The air quality effects are exacerbated by thin air, which is a by-product of altitude. This is why 8,000-foot high Mexico City suffers so terribly from inversion-produced smog. At 4,300 feet, the altitude is also a factor in Salt Lake’s inversions.

All I have to say is gross, GROSS, GROSS! I realize inversion is normal, but it is still so gross. I literally couldn't see our beautiful mountains majority of the week. 

Check out this cool interactive website to see how pollutants affect our lungs: http://www.airquality.utah.gov/clean_air/archive/SWF/lung_control.swf

ON THAT NOTE...

I will gladly be escaping this muck, come Thursday! I am planning to take advantage of my flight benefits, a long weekend, and a dear cousin, who currently lives in MAUI. I recruited a friend from San Francisco that I rarely get to see and we are going to head to Maui for five days to bum around on the beach. I can hardly wait to get away from the cold and gross air!