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As the shrinking Great Salt Lake exposes an ever-growing area of its lakebed, wind-blown dust becomes more dangerous for those living in Utah’s most populous region. It also makes the snowpack dirty, which threatens the state’s most precious resource—water. In a new study, University of Utah researchers analyzed the impact of dust on snow during the 2022 season. They found that 2022 had the most dust deposition events and the highest snowpack dust concentrations of any year since observations began in 2009. The dust caused the snowpack to disappear 17 days earlier than if no dust had been deposited. The…

The geography that makes Utah unique—red rock deserts, greatest snow on Earth, cities amidst natural beauty—also makes us vulnerable to one of the biggest challenges of our time: Climate change, which can drive or exacerbate severe drought, wildfires, air pollution, water scarcity, and disappearing snowpack. Luckily, the University of Utah has a deep pool of experts who use the campus location as a living laboratory to address these immense challenges. A generous $20 million gift from Clay and Marie Wilkes will leverage the U’s location and interdisciplinary knowledge to create the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy. William (Bill)…