Jim Steenburgh
@professorpowder.bsky.social
Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah; Fulbright Scholar; Author, Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth (book) and Wasatch Weather Weenies (blog); Posts my own.
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.
May 13, 2025 at 2:46 PM
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/...)
Two Decades of Dust Radiative Forcing on Snow Cover Across the Great Salt Lake Basin
Spatiotemporal patterns in dust on snow impacts were assessed over the MODIS record (2001–2023) in the Great Salt Lake Basin (GSLB) Dust deposition darkened snow every year, and the magnitude of ...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
May 13, 2025 at 2:46 PM
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.
May 13, 2025 at 2:46 PM
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.
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.
May 13, 2025 at 2:46 PM
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.
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.
I was merely pointing out that dust storms are not unusual here and storms like this one motivated our work 15 years ago.
May 13, 2025 at 3:34 AM
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.
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...
journals.ametsoc.org
May 13, 2025 at 2:43 AM
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.
May 13, 2025 at 1:34 AM
In this case the dust in the Salt Lake Valley is from origins to the south and southwest and not exposed lake bed.
Reposted by Jim Steenburgh
Death of a Thousand Cuts - Trump and Science
YouTube video by Andrew Revkin
www.youtube.com
May 9, 2025 at 6:15 PM
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
March 11, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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