A Look at Utah Cold Pools

Warmer air has moved in aloft, but most of the valleys and basins of northern Utah remained mired in cold pools (a.k.a. inversions) that simply will not scour out.  This morning's sounding from the Salt Lake City airport shows a surface temperature of 26ºF (-3ºC), but aloft, temperatures peak at about 37ºF (3ºC) about a kilometer above the valley floor.  Surface winds within the cold pool are light, but there is a 35 knot jet sitting about 1500 feet above the valley floor.

It's colder elsewhere.  Here's some overnight minimum temperatures for you:

Salt Lake City International Airport: 20ºF
Provo Municipal Airport: 12ºF
Vernal: -5ºF (lowest hourly temperature reported, minimum may be lower)
Cedar City: 3ºF (lowest hourly temperature reported, minimum may be lower)
Bryce Canyon: -17ºF (lowest 5-min temperature reported, minimum may be lower)
Peter Sinks: -24ºF (lowest 15-min temperature reported, minimum may be lower)

The evolution of the cold pool at Cedar City is quite interesting.  They observed their coldest temperatures in the early morning hours on Thursday.  This morning was actually quite a bit warmer.  Then, this morning, the cold pool mixed out nearly instantaneously, and the temperature rose from 3.2ºF to 28.4ºF in 40 min.

I think it will be interesting to see what happens today in the Salt Lake Valley.  Perhaps the strong flow aloft will scour out the cold pool from the top down, resulting in warmer temperatures on the benches while the valley floor remains colder.  We often see this in situations like this.  If it's not going to snow, we may as well tap into that warmer (and less polluted) air.