SALT LAKE CITY — Most times, it's great when Salt Lake City and Utah are ranked highly when compared to other states and cities across the country.
Not this time.
It doesn't take much effort to see that a major league inversion has settled over northern Utah valleys, making it seem as if the mountains have completely disappeared from the landscape.
But just how bad is it? Pretty bad.
As of 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Salt Lake City had the worst air quality in the entire U.S., according to the real-time IQAir rankings, coming out just ahead of Los Angeles. Utah's capital city currently registers in the unhealthy for sensitive groups category with a 125 reading. Anything over 151 would place Salt Lake City in the unhealthy rating.
Compared to the rest of the world, Salt Lake City sits 16th overall, behind cities in Bangladesh and India.
CURRENT POOR AIR QUALITY RANKINGS (3:50 p.m.)
1. Dhaka, Bangladesh
2. Kolkata, India
3. Lahore, Pakistan
4. Karachi, Pakistan
5. Cairo, Egypt
16. SALT LAKE CITY
24. Los Angeles
42. Minneapolis
48. San Francisco
Utahns should get used to the high rankings, at least for a few more days, as the current inversion will remain in place for the remainder of the week and possibly into Sunday.
