SALT LAKE CITY - Utah's world-class mountain peaks have been barely visible at times from the floor of the Salt Lake valley. A winter storm that won't quit? No, it's nasty pollution that just won't blow away.
Northern Utah's valleys have been smothered by an "inversion," a blanket of warm air that keeps cold air close to the ground and traps everything: car exhaust, factory emissions, even hard-to-see particles from furnaces or a cozy fireplace.
Together they form a cloudy shroud that has been described as soup, gunk, smog, and a few other titles that can't be printed.
Salt Lake and Davis counties, home to more than 1 million people, have been under a "red" alert for 16 days in January, which means the unhealthy air should be avoided by the elderly or anyone with respiratory problems. Some schools have kept kids off the playground.
Inversions aren't new to Utah, but this one is "wide, deep and dramatic," said Bob Dalley of the state Division of Air Quality, whose daily Web updates are must-reads.
Mike Atwell, 47, of Bozeman, Mont., in town for an outdoor-industry convention at the Salt Palace, looked east toward the barely visible Wasatch Mountains, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and shook his head.
"It's a huge bummer. It's not what you see -- it's what you can't see. You feel robbed," he said. "Mountains are why we live in the West. I feel like I'm in a foggy daze."
Another convention visitor, Beth Brewster, 36, of Seattle, said: "You expect it in Los Angeles, not Salt Lake City."
Alicia Reichert, 19, typically spends her lunch break skating at an outdoor rink at the downtown Gallivan Center.
"I cough a lot more than I usually do," she said, pausing after a set of tricky spins. "It seems harder and harder to come out here."
Some relief finally may come this week. The remedy is simple: a stiff wind or storm, no matter the direction, to send the stuff elsewhere.
"Just get here," Dalley said.
Salt Lake City, elevation 4,300 feet, is in a bowl surrounded by mountains like much of northern Utah.
The pollution-trapping inversions can stretch 80 miles north to Cache County and 40 miles south to Utah County. Under a red advisory, wood burning is prohibited, and motorists are encouraged to park their cars and choose another way to get around.
There were only three red days posted for Salt Lake and Davis counties last winter, compared to 25 this season, through Tuesday.
The threshold for a red day is lower this year, but the "criteria really are not significantly different," Dalley said.
In the Midwest and East, extreme cold commonly keeps school kids off the playground at recess. In Salt Lake City, however, principals go online to check air quality.
Parkview Elementary's 500 students were inside all last week.
"They get stir-crazy and restless," said the principal's secretary, Colleen McKnight. "On the other hand, you let them run outside and breathe the air and they start coughing.
"I've taken calls from two children with respiratory infections. I'm not sure if it's connected to the inversion, but I'm sure it doesn't help," she said.
Ron W. Smith, a 61-year-old accountant from Sandy, said he's been inside using a treadmill and rowing machine, exercise that is no match for his strenuous 25-mile bicycle rides.
"When it's this yucky, I can feel it in my lungs," he said. "I haven't been outdoors in January. I'm going through withdrawal."
