On the night of April 8, a powerful cold front swept through Salt Lake City, bringing with it a massive dust storm that briefly obscured the skyline and spiked air quality index (AQI) levels to 129—unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Captured on camera atop the University of Utah’s William Browning Building, the event revealed just how quickly conditions can change. Dust from Utah’s West Desert, Sevier Lake, and parts of eastern Nevada was carried into the city by wind gusts over 45 mph.
This dramatic drop in air quality highlights a growing year-round concern across the West, where drought, exposed soil, and high winds contribute to more frequent dust events—adding to existing air quality challenges like inversions, ozone, and wildfire smoke.
At TELLUS, our real-time monitoring systems are designed to capture these changes as they happen—empowering communities with data that’s both actionable and easy to understand.
