"Utahns have choice words for the ugly, unhealthy clouds that periodically shroud its valleys in winter -- like the one we can expect to endure through Thursday."
"Weather forecasters often call it 'haze.' Some people dub it 'smog' or 'inversion' episodes. Gov. Gary Herbert called it 'gunky.' Because of the harm it does to health, it also could be called 'toxic' or 'poisonous.'
In some ways, it seems there is no right word for what residents and visitors to northern Utah experience when their senses are greeted on the high-pollution days with air that makes their eyes, nostrils and throats sting and that makes the most vulnerable among us suffer more asthma, heart attacks and many other health problems.
It’s just such a period that much of northern Utah has endured since after Christmas, when snow had settled on the ground, temperatures plummeted and pollution began to build up under the high-pressure system that set up camp over the Mountain West."
Judy Fahys reports for the Salt Lake Tribune January 9, 2013.
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