An inversion is forming again and with sunny days expected the risk of high ozone increases. Bingham Research Center Director Dr. Seth Lyman shares that while we have continued to stay below the EPA ozone standard for the last two weeks, there were some close calls. “The closest call came on January 10th when several sites had ozone above 60 ppb (parts per billion),” explains Dr. Lyman. “We had a few days of weak inversion with clouds before that, with little local ozone production, and then ozone in the Basin suddenly jumped on the 10th when it turned sunny.” The storms have kept things cleared but this weekend the forecast shows sunshine so ozone is expected to increase again, probably peaking on Saturday or Sunday, according to Dr. Lyman. A storm due to arrive Sunday is anticipated to clean out the atmosphere, likely before ozone has exceeded the EPA standard. “We are now 3 weeks past the winter solstice, and each day is getting a bit brighter and a bit longer, allowing ozone to form more quickly,” shares Dr. Lyman. “We will be watching things closely, and we will send an alert when [and] if an exceedance of the standard is likely.”
