Recreational Fires Must Be Eliminated

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WELCOME TO HELL ON EARTH

The air is smoky from burning wood in North St. Paul, MN, almost every evening. It is a nightmare. What used to be a nice place to live has become a living hell.

WARNING: If you buy a house in North St. Paul, MN, you will regret it! It may be the biggest, most expensive mistake you ever make. You will breathe smoky air almost every day of your life in this town. This is not an exaggeration. The wood smoke in this town gets heavy and gets heavy often. When you want to get out of this dump of a town, how many people do you think are going to want to buy a house in a city where heavy air pollution every night is normal and clean air is rare? This blog gets thousands of visitors every year. The word is out: North St. Paul is a horrible place to live!

Fresh air is very rare around here. If you are considering moving to North St. Paul or buying a home here, I strongly recommend that you do not do it no matter how good of a price you get. The only way you will be happy in this town is if you love breathing smoky air almost every day. North St. Paul, MN, is a horrible place to live because of the smoky air!

Burning wood, grass, leaves, paper, cardboard, and sometimes plastic, construction materials, and chemicals, if it is combustible it gets burned in North St. Paul and you are going to breathe it.

The air was smoky 25 out of 31 evenings in July 2009. We had 37 hours of continuous wood smoke in the air Aug. 29th - 31st. There was wood smoke in the air 19 consecutive evenings from Aug. 21st to Sept. 8th. It rained heavily on Aug. 20th, providing the only relief we got from wood smoke for almost three weeks.

Is this a good way to live? No. It is a horrible way to live. Take it from someone who knows. Breathing smoky, polluted air every day is misery.

Every day in this city several people are having recreational fires. Every evening the air is filled with the stench of burning wood. I am one person sick and tired of breathing smoky air every day. Is it too much to ask to be able to breathe fresh air in your own home?

Who is responsible for this wood smoke nightmare? The four city council members are responsible. Council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick have refused to do anything about this wood smoke problem. They don't care if you have a child with asthma. They don't care if you have to live like a shut-in because the air is so polluted. They don't care if your sinuses burn because the wood smoke is so heavy.

Our four Council members have defended the rights of a small percentage of households to burn wood daily over the rights of all the rest of us to breathe.

You have no right to breathe under Walczak, Bruton, Furlong, and Zick. Burners have the right to burn wood 49 hours a week recreationally. The rest of us have no rights at all.

If you are considering purchasing real estate in the city of North Saint Paul, Minnesota (55109), factor this blog carefully into your decision. Buying a home in this city means that your kids will breathe smoky air while playing in the yard almost every day. Your baby will breathe smoky air in her crib should you leave the windows open around your house. If you leave your windows open you will wake up in the middle of the night choking on smoky air.

Perhaps worst of all, your utility rates will be high because you will have to run the air conditioner instead of leaving the windows open on a cool summer evening. You have no other choice because almost every night the air is too smoky to breathe in this city. Consider this blog your warning.

North St. Paul, Minnesota, is a wonderful community other than the wood smoke. If we could restore fresh air like we used to enjoy, life would be happy again. But that is not going to happen any time soon.

Tell others about this blog!

Monday, May 31, 2010

Monday 05/31/2010 Air Pollution

It is a beautiful Memorial Day. It is another smoky evening in North St. Paul, MN.

About 1 PM: There was a little grass smoke in the early afternoon. I failed to record the time.

5:00 PM: Faint grass smoke at this time coming in on the breeze. Somebody is burning yard waste. I smelled it coming in the window at the dinner table. Close the windows. One room smells faintly like grass smoke. The duration of the grass smoke was about 20 minutes. The illegal yard waste burner was not near us. It could have been someone blocks away.

6:00 PM: No smoke at this time. Sunny, beautiful, 79 degrees.

Tonight, the air will likely be filled with the stench of burning wood. It is a perfect evening for polluting the air.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:05 PM: Faint to light wood smoke at this time. The air was clear just a few minutes ago. The wood smoke is blowing in on the wind. Nobody near us is burning. You know the drill. Close the windows!

8:30 PM: Faint wood smoke blowing in on the wind continues.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

9:15 PM: At this time I went out looking for wood smoke. It was faintly smoky on the southern edge of Silver Lake. Back on 18th between Charles & Henry, the wood smoke was stronger. Somebody nearby is burning, possibly on that row of houses or further south beyond 17th. Over on 19th & Margaret, there was faint wood smoke, but it did not smell like the wood smoke I encountered further east. I also encountered another type of wood smoke near 18th & Helen.

9:40 PM: Back home. The air smells faintly like burning paper. It isn't wood smoke.

10:05 PM: The air is mostly clear. Open the windows.

10:45 PM: The air is clear.

11:30 PM: No smoke of any kind.

On a side note, I was appalled to see the garbage cans overflowing with refuse at Silver Lake. The lake gets busy with picnickers on holidays. The garbage was piled high above the waste receptacles. Garbage was scattered on the ground near the garbage containers as well. If people using the park for picnics bring the refuse, maybe they should take it home with them and dispose of it properly instead of littering our park.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Sunday 05/30/2010 Air Pollution

1:15 PM: A faint grass smoke is in the air at this time. Somebody is burning grass. If people aren't burning wood in this town they are burning grass! 81 degrees, it feels a little humid.

3:40 PM: No smoke. Light rain now. It was 77 degrees prior to the rain.

5:00 PM: No smoke.

6:30 PM: Still no wood smoke. Gentle rumbles of thunder at this time.

6:55 PM: Faint grass or wood smoke for a minute or so.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

9:35 PM: No real wood smoke. There is a very faint smokiness of some type in the air. It could be highly diluted wood smoke from a distant burner or a grill or maybe vehicle exhaust fumes. While I cannot tell what type of pollutant is in the air, I can tell for sure the air is not fresh.

10:30 PM: No real smoke in the air. Bed time.

When I woke for the first time around 3 AM there was a very faint trace of some type of smokiness still in the air. Since it was not strong enough to determine it was wood smoke, this evening will count as being smoke-free.

Saturday 05/29/2010 Air Pollution

It was another smoky evening. I did not stay up late so I do not know how bad it got.

4:00 PM: No wood smoke. The air conditioning is on, so the windows are not open. I will not notice any grass burning today.

5:00 PM: No wood smoke. 92 degrees.

8:30 PM: No wood smoke yet.

9:50 PM: Very faint wood smoke. Somebody in the distance is burning wood. It is still very warm outside, about 88 degrees. I did not think there would be recreational bonfire burning tonight.

10:30 PM: A light mixture of wood and grass smoke. Off to bed. Last check of the evening.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Friday 05/28/2010 Air Pollution

It's a holiday weekend. The air has to be smoky. The air is smoky every evening unless it rains or is too hot or cold. So, it will be a normal smoky hell of an evening.

4:30 PM: No wood smoke. There was no grass smoke all day. 86 degrees, sunny, a very fine day.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. There will be. I was sitting outside at this time enjoying the nice evening air. A month from now, we will be eaten alive by mosquitoes. There are not many yet.

9:25 PM: A faint wood smoke has taken hold. Sitting outside will soon become unbearable thanks to the regular evening wood smoke, so I will have to head inside. We are prisoners in our own home again.

9:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It got smoky quickly this evening. It does not appear any of our immediate neighbors is burning. It could be someone a block or two away, or more. 76 degrees.

It's another smoky hell of an evening. Do you want to live in a city like this?

10:35 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. The air pollution is tapering off.

10:52 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. The air is very smoky right now. This is one of the smokiest nights of the spring. The wood smoke is so strong you cannot stand to breathe the air! Spending a few seconds outside will leave your clothes reeking of wood smoke like you spent hours in a smoky bar.

11:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues.

The wood smoke decreased after midnight. When I woke at 4 AM, the air was fresh. I never did find out where the smoke was coming from. I was in no mood to go out looking for it. Doing that would have required a shower and a change of clothes because I would have reeked of wood smoke from head to toe.

Thursday 05/27/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. Not a trace. I was home all day enjoying a long holiday weekend. There was no grass or wood smoke at all. The air was fresh all evening and all night long. Miracles do happen. I was certain tonight would be another smoky night. But it was not. It was 80 degrees at 5:30 PM, sunny, and it was not humid. It was a beautiful late spring day.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Wednesday 05/26/2010 Air Pollution

I knew with the cooler temperature it would be a smoky evening. And it was.

4:30 PM: No smoke. 79 degrees, a very nice spring day.

6:30 PM: No wood smoke.

10:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It is really smoky outside. None of our nearby neighbors is burning. It could be someone a quarter of a mile away or more. I did not notice any smoke after 6:30 PM until when I fell asleep. I woke at this time to find the evening air in North St. Paul smoky as it usually is. I was not shocked in the least. If the air isn't smoky, that is what is shocking. 70 degrees at this time.

11:15 PM: A faint wood smokiness remains in the air.

Midnight: I happened to get up again around this time. The air was mostly clear.

Tuesday 05/25/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. It was 87 degrees at 4 PM but not as humid as the prior couple of days. When the evening temperature is in the mid to upper 80s, bonfires are not common. It is too hot.

Monday 05/24/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke today. It was too hot to sit next to a flaming pile of wood smoking up the air. The temperature was 93 degrees at 4 PM. The high reached 95 degrees officially in the Twin Cities. It was a little muggy, too. But at least the air was fresh!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sunday 05/23/2010 Air Pollution

12:45 AM: No wood smoke at this time. Thankfully.

5:00 AM: No wood smoke where we live. But there was a smoldering wood smoke and burnt wood smell coming from a house east of 19th & Margaret on the southern edge of Silver Lake. I could smell the wood smoke from that source very faintly at Lake Blvd. & Swan. It is likely they were the source of last night's wood smoke considering the wind pattern at the time.

10:45 AM: Faint grass smoke. I can smell it coming in the windows. Somebody somewhere is burning yard waste. Every damn day in this nightmare city somebody is burning something! Morning, noon, night, wood, grass, leaves, or whatever. Somebody is burning something every day. It was not like this back in the late 1990s. North St. Paul used to be a good place to live. Not anymore and not for several years.

11:15 AM: No smoke of any kind at this time. The grass smoke from earlier did not last long. 80 degrees at this time measured at North High School, cloudy, and humid.

There was no wood smoke this evening. It was warm and muggy. There are not as many bonfires when temperatures get into the upper 80s. The Twin Cities temperature at 9:00 PM was 86 degrees. While the air was thick with humidity, it was nice to step outside and take a deep breathe of fresh air.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Saturday 05/22/2010 Air Pollution

12:25 AM: Faint wood smoke. The air pollution is getting worse. I can hear some voices off in the distance, barely audible. They aren't on this block, I am not sure where they are. Somebody is having a backyard bonfire illegally after hours. But, the city of North St. Paul is such a smoky, horrible place to live, why not have a fire after midnight? Smoky air at 9 PM is no less of a nuisance than smoky air after midnight!

12:45 AM: Light wood smoke. It is getting smokier still. I hope city council member Jan Walczak has her windows open and is breathing smoky air in bed, if she even lives in this town.

1:00 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It is smokier now than it was 15 minutes ago. It is very smoky outside. Nobody is going to want to breathe this air in this nightmare town.

4:00 AM: The air is mostly fresh. Time to open the windows again.

12:22 PM: Faint grass smoke. We had a thunderstorm an hour or so ago and a good amount of rain. A little bit of drizzle is still coming down. And somebody is burning grass!

6:00 PM: No smoke. Since the grass smoke earlier, the air has been fresh. Will the air be filled with wood smoke tonight? Isn't it always? 76 degrees at this time, sunny, and a little windy.

7:00 PM: Light wood smoke for a few minutes. Then it was gone.

8:40 PM: No wood smoke.

9:15 PM: Faint variable wood smoke coming in on the wind. The burner is not near us.

9:50 PM: Faint to light wood smoke varying constantly. You can smell it for a few seconds, then it goes away for a little bit before returning. It is still a little windy. The wood burner could be a half mile away for all I know.

10:15 PM: No real wood smoke at this time.

11:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke is coming in on the breeze. It isn't much, but you can tell it is present.

Sunday morning, I was down by Silver Lake and smelled a smoldering wood smoke and burnt log smell coming from a house a couple of houses east of the intersection of 19th & Margaret. It was a faint odor of wood smoke, not just a burnt log smell. I think the wood was still smoldering. With last night's wind pattern, it is likely this was the source of the wood smoke we smelled a good distance away. At the time I passed by, the wind was blowing north. I went back around to 18th and smelled nothing. The smoke had to be coming from one of those houses on 19th or from a house directly behind.

Don't you like to smell burning wood at 5 AM?

Friday 05/21/1010 Air Pollution

12:20 AM: Light wood smoke continues.

1:00 AM: Faint smokiness in the air.

2:00 AM: Fresh air! We can finally open the windows in this hell on earth city! It is a very uncomfortable 78 degrees inside this house. The cool air feels nice. It is not easy to sleep when it is warm and uncomfortable.

For a while, I thought we might escape this evening without wood smoke. No such luck. There never is in this town.

5:15 PM: No wood smoke. Sunny, 63 degrees at this time. There was some rain drizzle earlier this morning. None now.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke. Fresh air.

9:15 PM: A very faint trace of some type of smoke is in the air. It is not strong enough to determine what it is. But in this city, and on a Friday night, it has to be wood smoke.

9:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke in the air. Somebody off in the distance is having a bonfire. Smoky air again in this nightmare of a city!

10:15 PM: Very faint wood smoke continues.

11:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke continues.

Midnight: Very faint wood smoke continues.

It did not start getting really smoky until after midnight.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Thursday 05/20/2010 Air Pollution

4:15 PM: No smoke. 79 degrees. The temperature reached 80 degrees a short time later. It is a beautiful day.

5:15 PM: Faint to light grass smoke. Nobody around us is burning yard waste. Somebody is. They could be blocks away. The smoke did not last more than a few minutes.

7:00 PM: No wood or grass smoke. Fresh air!

7:55 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Somebody must be having a bonfire. I looked around. None of our immediate neighbors are having a fire. I could not see any smoke rising. It could be someone blocks away. Smoke travels quite a distance.

9:05 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky outside! I hope the wood smoke is making its way to city council member Jan Walczak's house. She supports this horrible wood smoke pollution. 75 degrees at this time measured at North High School. This would be a very nice evening to have the windows open. But we cannot! It will probably be smoky all night long. The city of North St. Paul, MN, is a nightmare! You really cannot sit outside in wood smoke this strong. It is terrible. Your clothes will reek of smoke after a few minutes like they would if you spent several hours in a smoky bar. We are prisoners in our own home once again.

Passing through the city, I have noticed several homes being put up for sale in the past month or so. I hope anyone thinking of buying a home in this city does a little research on the internet and finds this blog. I would not want anyone else to make the same mistake we did by moving into this horrible town. If the air was smoky like this when we moved here, we never would have. Back then, the air was fresh every day. Now, living in North Saint Paul is like living in hell. Do not be lured by a good price on real estate. Smoky air every day is a nightmare. We have been lucky this spring with the rain and a few nice smoke-free days recently. But once we head into summer, it's wood smoke every evening with very few exceptions.

Living in North St. Paul is like living in hell!

11:00 PM: Moderately strong wood smoke continues. As does the misery of living in North St. Paul.

11:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues.

Wednesday 05/19/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. Miracles do happen! It was 79 degrees at 6:15 PM. A beautiful evening. The fresh air was wonderful!

Tuesday 05/18/2010 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: No wood smoke. 75 degrees, sunny, a beautiful start to the evening.

6:50 PM: Light grass smoke. Somebody somewhere is burning yard waste. It smells a little like wood and grass. I noticed it coming in the window when I was near a window. Close all the windows. This is our daily ritual.

8:30 PM: No smoke of any kind. The air is fresh. I do not know the duration of the smoke from earlier. Grass burning usually does not last too long. It is the smoke from wood burning that lasts for hours, sometimes 10 hours or more.

There was no more wood or yard waste smoke. The air was fresh for the rest of the evening, all night, and into the next morning.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Concerned citizens

There is a group of citizens concerned about the closure of the swimming beach at Silver Lake this summer because of budgetary constraints. It is nice to see citizens concerned about local issues. The people seeking support from citizens did not leave any contact information I could see. I would like to ask them if the air is frequently smoky in their area. And if it is, are they the ones creating the smoke? Because while having life guards at the beach would be nice for the families who go there, at least in the early summer, the daily wood smoke pollution in this city is making life unbearable. If they aren't the ones creating the wood smoke, I do not know why they would want to breathe it as frequently as we do here.

Monday 05/17/2010 Air Pollution

6:30 PM: No wood smoke yet. There will be. There always is in the city of North Saint Paul, MN. 81 degrees measured at North High School. This is a beautiful evening and will certainly be ruined by wood smoke pollution.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. I am confident there will be. 73 degrees. So far this has been a flawlessly beautiful evening. I hope it stays that way.

This was an evening absent of wood smoke. It is a little early in the bonfire season. Bonfires really kick into high gear when children reach summer recess. We will take all the fresh air we can get.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Sunday 05/16/2010 Air Pollution

The weather forecast originally promised to bring rain this evening. It now looks like we will not get rain in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. That means another smoky hell of an evening in North St. Paul, Minnesota.

2:30 PM: No smoke of any kind yet. 78 degrees measured at North High School. This will be a nice evening to take a walk down by the beach at Silver Lake.

5:15 PM: Light wood smoke. I smelled wood smoke as we were eating Sunday dinner. One bedroom on the opposite side of the house completely reeked of wood smoke. The other rooms did not get as much smoke in them. Close the windows. The wood smoke could not have lasted more than a few minutes, just long enough to make one room smell like a forest fire. 73 degrees, sunny, and beautiful except for the wood smoke.

8:10 PM: Light to moderate wood and some other type of smoke. It smells horrible! Logs are not being burned. Waste is being disposed of. The smoke can best be described as the smell of a burning house when the roof is on fire. Somebody is disposing of waste and the whole neighborhood has to breathe it. I do not see anyone nearby burning. It could be someone blocks away. Close all the windows again!

8:23 PM: Strong wood and waste smoke. The intensity of the smoke has increased. The air is filled with the toxic fumes of whatever is being burned.

8:45: The smoke is almost gone. Only a very faint trace of it lingers. Will there be more waste burning tonight?

9:00 PM: No smoke. The air is clear.

10:00 PM: No smoke. Off to bed.

Midnight: I woke up and checked the air outside. The air was fresh and clear and I could smell a hint of blossoms. I opened a couple of windows and went back to bed. The air was fresh at 5 AM.

If it isn't raining or too cold, somebody is always burning something in North St. Paul. It is a nightmare!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Saturday 05/15/2010 Air Pollution

1:15 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues. It has gotten smokier since midnight. I am tempted to venture out to look for the source. But I will go to bed and hope for fresh air in the morning. 52 degrees measured at North High School at this hour. I do not know if the source of the wood smoke is a bonfire or a fireplace. It could be a fireplace with a temperature in the low 50s. It does not matter what the source is. The air is smoky all the same. The air stinks.

This past evening, the drone of lawn mowers and leaf blowers was constant. That means we are sure to have some grass smoke later today. If people are not burning wood in the city of North St. Paul, MN, they are burning yard waste.

6:00 AM: Faint to light wood smoke continues. Smoky air in the morning. What more could you ask for in a community?

It was another smoky hell of an evening in North Saint Paul.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. The wood smoke was gone by 10 AM or earlier and the air was fresh and clean all day. You can smell the lilacs and blossoms. 74 degrees and beautiful at this time.

7:00 PM: A very faint smokiness is in the air. It is not strong enough to tell what it is. It could be engine exhaust, grill smoke, yard waste, or smoke from burning wood. The air is dirty.

8:35 PM: No wood smoke. The faint smokiness from earlier is pretty much gone.

9:15 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky outside. Nobody around us is burning. It could be someone blocks away. You do not want to breathe this poisonous air.

10:00 PM: Moderately heavy wood smoke continues.

11:30 PM: A faint wood smoke lingers in the air. It may be the asshole who was burning put out their fire. That does not happen often. Usually in North St. Paul, the air is smoky all night long because people leave their bonfires smoldering.

By 12:30 AM the air was clear enough to open the windows again.

Friday 05/14/2010 Air Pollution

It was a beautiful spring evening. It was the nicest day we have had in about two weeks. Naturally, the air would be smoky.

4:30 PM: No wood smoke. Partly cloudy, breezy, 70 degrees.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke.

7:00 PM: Faint wood smoke for a few minutes around this time. Somebody was grilling meat with wood. It did not last long or the wind shifted.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke. Fresh air!

9:00 PM: No wood smoke. Fresh air continues.

10:00 PM: A very faint smokiness of some type is in the air. It is not strong enough to determine what it is. The windows will have to be kept closed tonight. As with every night.

10:30 PM: Very faint smokiness continues.

11:35 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. In this stupid city recreational burning is supposed to stop at 11:00 PM. That is when it tends to really get started. Nobody around us is burning. The burner could be a block or two or more away.

Midnight: Light wood smoke continues.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Thursday 05/13/2010 Air Pollution

4:45 PM: No wood smoke. It drizzled rain this morning and the ground is a little damp still. 54 degrees and cloudy at this time.

Some people find cloudy, damp days such as these depressing. I look forward to them because it means there is a good chance the air will not be polluted with toxic wood smoke like it normally is. Sometimes you feel the need to step outside and take in a deep breath of fresh air. You cannot do that most evenings in this town because the air is so smoky. If you live in the city of North St. Paul, MN, you know how precious fresh air is. You have to savor what little you get thanks to our evil city council. Because if it is a nice evening with no rain, the evening air is almost always smoky.

I will be certain to step outside several times this evening to savor the fresh air. The weather forecast calls for nicer weather on Friday and Saturday and that means smoky, polluted air.

7:30 PM: There is a very faint smokiness of some type in the air. I cannot tell what it is. It could be a grill.

8:55 PM: The air is clear.

There was no wood smoke this evening.

Wednesday 05/12/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. It was another day of drizzling rain and cool temperatures. 48 degrees at 5:15 PM.

Tuesday 05/11/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. It drizzled rain much of the day leaving the ground wet. With a temperature of 45 degrees around 4:40 PM, it was cool enough for recreational fireplace use but there was none around us. It was another nice evening of fresh air.

Monday 05/10/2010 Air Pollution

6:00 PM: No wood smoke. Rain drizzle at this time, cloudy, 55 degrees.

There was no wood smoke this evening. The rain and cool temperature was prohibitive for bonfires. There was no recreational fireplace use near or upwind from us either. It was a pleasant, smoke-free evening. As it should be.

Sunday 05/09/2010 Air Pollution

6:15 AM: A faint smokiness remains in the air. 32 degrees with frost on the ground.

5:15 PM: No wood smoke. No wood smoke all day long. 57 degrees and sunny.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke. 58 degrees and sunny.

7:45 PM: The air remains fresh.

8:20 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. It had to be smoky, didn't it? The windows were kept open a little all day but were closed earlier.

9:15 PM: No wood smoke. It did not last too long.

10:10 PM: Not fresh air, but I cannot say it is smoky.

11:00 PM: No wood smoke.

Midnight: No wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Saturday 05/08/2010 Air Pollution

It is a smoky evening in our neighborhood.

5:15 PM: No wood smoke. Mostly cloudy, 49 degrees.

6:15 PM: A faint smokiness is in the air. I cannot say it is wood smoke or any other type.

7:45 PM: No wood smoke. 51 degrees and sunny now.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke.

10:50 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It is fairly smoky outside at this time. It comes as no surprise. Not in the city of North St. Paul. Last check of the evening.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Friday 05/07/2010 Air Pollution

4:15 PM: No wood smoke. 46 degrees, light rain drizzle. It drizzled rain most of the day.

5:30 PM: No wood smoke. I will not be surprised to find people using fireplaces tonight. If people aren't burning outside, they will be burning inside. It is a cold, wet, miserable day. 44 degrees. The drizzle has stopped for the moment.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke. Fresh air continues!

8:45 PM: Very faint wood smoke for a few minutes, then it was gone.

There was no more wood smoke for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Thursday 05/06/2010 Air Pollution

4:30 PM: No wood smoke. We are beginning to smell the lilacs and blossoms. The weather widget on this blog indicates a temperature of 57 degrees at North High School. The KARE 11 weather channel puts the current temperature at 54 degrees in St. Paul.

5:00 PM: Faint grass smoke on the wind followed by a hint of wood smoke. Somebody is burning grass somewhere. What sneaky people do is burn wood then throw their grass clippings on top of it to hide their illegal burning. I find grass burning to be less of a nuisance than wood burning. I have never experienced burning sinuses and nausea from the burning of yard waste.

6:30 PM: A very faint wood smoke can be smelled in the air. The burner is not close by.

8:00 PM: A very faint smokiness remains in the air.

9:00 PM: The air is fresh.

10:30 PM: Fresh air continues. Last check of the evening.

Wednesday 05/05/2010 Air Pollution

4:40 PM: No wood smoke. Cloudy. Brief rain about 30 minutes ago. It was very windy earlier. A little breezy now. 54 degrees.

There was no wood smoke this evening.

Tuesday 05/04/2010 Air Pollution

4:30 PM: No wood smoke. 78 degrees, cloudy with strong wind gusts. There was a brief sprinkle of rain shortly after this time.

6:15 PM: Fresh air, sunny. Strong winds continue.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke. Light rain for a few minutes.

There was no wood smoke this evening. Thanks to the brief rain showers.

Monday 05/03/2010 Air Pollution

4:00 PM: No wood smoke. Light rain for a few minutes.

6:30 PM: A very faint smokiness is in the air. I cannot say it is wood smoke. It could be a grill. 55 degrees.

7:00 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. I could smell it coming in the window. It was strong enough to require the windows to be closed. The stench of wood smoke is unmistakable when you breathe smoky air almost every day as we do.

7:15 PM: The wood smoke is gone. It went as quickly as it came. A shift in wind direction could have brought the smoke to us for a brief period before shifting again.

There was no more wood smoke for the duration of the evening.

Sunday 05/02/2010 Air Pollution

4:15 PM: Very faint grass smoke from a distant burner. 62 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy.

5:15 PM: A faint smokiness of some type is in the air. I do not know what it is.

6:30 PM: Fresh air. Sunny at this time.

There was no wood or grass smoke for the duration of the evening.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Saturday 05/01/2010 Air Pollution

It is another smoky hell of an evening in North St. Paul, MN.

4:00 PM: No wood smoke. 63 degrees, cloudy. It was very windy earlier and continues to be a little windy at this time.

6:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky outside. I went out and looked for it and it was the usual suspect. The house that was burning and smoking up the whole neighborhood is about 500 feet away from city council member Jan Walczak's house. Does she have no sense of smell? You could smell the wood smoke blocks away from the source. My clothes smelled of wood smoke when I returned home.

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues. It will probably go on all night long.

The air was fresh when I woke at 4 AM.

We can all thank city council member Jan Walczak for another smoky evening. She supports smoky air. Her neighbors are the smokiest burners in the city. Tonight's and last night's wood smoke was created by two different burners within 500 feet of Walczak's home. Three very smoky frequent burners had Jan Walczak campaign signs in their yards in October 2008. Her neighbor across the street belched wood smoke into the air every evening last winter, smoking up our area if the breeze was right. She even has grass burners nearby and she does nothing about it. She does not care if you have to breathe smoky air every day. That shows how much Jan Walczak cares about the people who live in this community. Jan Walczak does not care about children with asthma or the elderly with breathing difficulties.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

A Maplewood police officer falls in the line of duty

It is a sad morning. The criminal element has murdered another cop. A police officer with the department of neighboring Maplewood, MN, was killed in the line of duty around 6:30 AM this morning near Lake Phalen. The officer was responding to a reported car jacking when he was slain. Early last September, North St. Paul police officer Richard Crittenden was killed in the line of duty responding to a domestic call. A Maplewood police officer providing backup on the call was shot, too, but the bullet hit the officer's belt and not her body.

Friday 04/30/2010 Air Pollution

Wood smoke returns. We had an amazing run of fresh air in the city of North St. Paul, MN, the past week-and-a-half. It is very rare for us to have so many evenings without wood smoke in this polluted nightmare of a town. On Sunday the 18th and Sunday the 25th, there was some faint wood smoke from grilling for an hour or so. Other than that, we have had fresh air every evening since the 18th. The run of fresh air has ended.

4:45 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. Close the windows. 69 degrees. It rained earlier today for a short while but is pretty nice now. I do not know where the smoke is coming from. It is too warm for a fireplace and a bit early for a bonfire. It could be from grilling food or maybe somebody burned some wood to burn grass on top of it, something that happens all the time in this city. The air is smoky again.

6:30 PM: No wood smoke at this time.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:15 PM: Faint wood smoke coming in the window from somewhere and a very faint smell of burning rubber or something is in the air. It did not last more than a few minutes before it was gone. Your next door neighbor could burn wood and if the wind blows away from you, you will never smell it. There is not much of a breeze at all, but it happened to be blowing in the right direction for this short while.

8:40 PM: Faint wood smoke. The air is smoky now. About 63 degrees at this time.

10:00 PM: Faint wood smoke continues. I went out and looked and found a bonfire a few houses down from one of our city council members. This household burns wood three or four times a week in the early part of the summer and has been doing so for two or three years now. There is not much of a breeze. What there is of a breeze seems to be blowing away from us. But we were not so lucky to escape the horrible stench of wood smoke completely and we are not that near them. Last check of the evening. When I woke up at 2 AM the air was fresh and clear.

Thursday 04/29/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. My notes are not very legible. I wrote something about a rain sprinkle at 7:30 PM and temperatures of 65 degrees at 4 PM and 68 degrees at 10 PM.

Wednesday 04/28/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. 63 degrees at 4 PM and also at 10 PM.

Tuesday 04/27/2010 Air Pollution

There was no real wood smoke in the air this evening that I could detect. At 10:45 PM there was a faint smokiness in the air. I cannot say it was wood smoke. It could have been wood smoke from a distant burner or vehicle exhaust fumes that were not blown away and held to ground level. The air was not fresh. 57 degrees at 4:45 PM. A pretty nice evening if a bit cool.

Monday 04/26/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. The air was fresh all night long. 62 degrees at 5 PM. A little cool for bonfires and a little warm for fireplaces.