Can’t See the Bookcliffs? Why Grand Junction’s Winter Inversions Trap Cold Air and Smoke

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter You know the morning. You walk outside, coffee in hand, look north for the Bookcliffs, and they're just gone. Not cloudy. Not foggy, exactly. Just a flat gray nothing hanging over the whole valley like somebody forgot to clean the windshield on Grand Junction. And it's not going anywhere. Not today, maybe not this week. That's the inversion. If you've lived here more than one winter, you already know it by sight. If you're new, welcome. You're going to get to know it real well. What a Temperature Inversion Actually Is in Grand Junction, Colorado Here's the nerdy part, and I promise it's quick. Normally, the higher you go, the colder the air gets. That's why there's snow on the Grand Mesa while we're down here in a light jacket. An inversion flips that around. Cold, heavy air settles on the valley floor, and a layer of warmer air slides in on top of it. That warm layer acts like a lid on a pot. The cold air can't rise, so it just sits there.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.