North St. Paul, MN - Warning For Home Buyers - The Most Polluted City In The World

Updates coming soon

2011-12-01T06:27:00.003-06:00

I have not been updating this blog regularly for the past two months. I have been recording the air quality conditions in my notebook, I just have not been putting it on the blog. I haven't been checking my email or visitor counts either. Documenting the horrible air pollution in the city of North St. Paul, Minnesota, is not much fun. Now that the weather is cold, there is less wood smoke in the air than during the spring, summer, and early fall months. Winter is our least smoky season. When the weather is warm enough to open the windows, you can be sure the air is going to be too smoky to leave the windows open.

I was surprised to see over 300 visitors in one day back in early November. Somebody must have posted a link on a high traffic web page. The last time I visited this blog I had 134 Facebook Likes. I now have 182.

I will update the blog with smoke conditions through the end of November. I have not decided if I am going to go on hiatus again this winter. Housing values continue to decline and houses are taking a long time to sell. We will be stuck in this hell of a city for a while. Next April the recreational bonfires will start and smoky air every evening will be back. The certainties of life in North St. Paul are death, taxes, and smoky, polluted air. North St. Paul sucks.

Friday 09/23/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:45:00.003-05:00

The asshole frequent burner in the area is smoking up a storm. We have been lucky that he is burning less these days than he was years ago. He used to burn five days a week all summer long but this year he is only burning three or four times a week with some unexplained breaks in his burning.

4:55 PM: No smoke where we are but I saw the asshole frequent burner producing huge clouds of smoke as I was coming into the neighborhood. 58 degrees and sunny.

5:05 PM: Light wood smoke coming and going with the breeze.

5:45 PM: Moderately strong grass smoke. This smoke is very heavy for yard waste burning. I don't know if asshole frequent burner is burning grass or some other asshole in the area joined in and burned grass. North St. Paul, MN, is a horrible place to live. There is no telling how long the air will be smoky tonight. If we are lucky we will have fresh air by morning. It is not uncommon for the air to be smoky at 6 AM from the prior evening's burning around here.

6:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Can't sit outside. Can't open the windows. This is how we live in North St. Paul. It has been this way for many years now.

6:30 PM: Faint wood smoke in the air at this time.

6:50 PM: A very faint smoke of some type is in the air at this time.

It is going to be a long, smoky night in North St. Paul.

Thursday 09/22/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:44:00.003-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke polluting our precious air this evening. It was another unseasonably cool day. The temperature was 54 degrees at 5 PM with cloudy skies.

Wednesday 09/21/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:42:00.003-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening. It was a wet, drizzly evening. It was drizzling rain around 7 PM with a temperature of 55 degrees. Not good weather for a recreational bonfire. We will take fresh air any way we can get it in North St. Paul.

Tuesday 09/20/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:40:00.003-05:00

3:30 PM: Faint smoke from burning leaves. We will have plenty more smoke from burning leaves the next two months.

3:45 PM: No smoke. Fresh air. 70 degrees, cloudy.

There was no more wood ore yard waste smoke where we live. There was wood smoke in the air down the street but none on our property.

Monday 09/19/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:31:00.002-05:00

We had the first incident of leaf burning for the season this evening. People burn anything they can get their hands on in this horrible city. Wood, paper, leaves, grass, other types of waste. If it is combustible, people burn it in the city of North St. Paul, MN. Leaf burning will continue regularly until snow covers the ground. The burning of leaves usually continues well into November. So we have smoke from burning leaves to look forward to in addition to wood, grass, and whatever else.

5:15 PM: No smoke. Sunny and beautiful with a temperature of 73 degrees.

6:50 PM: Light smoke from burning leaves. The smoke is a little heavy for yard waste burning. The burner is not far. I heard the distant sound of a leaf blower earlier and now there is leaf smoke in the air. The smoke from burning leaves lasted less than 30 minutes.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

9:00 PM: A faint smoke of some type is in the air. I don't know what it is. This was the last check of the evening.

Sunday 09/18/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:26:00.002-05:00

There was no wood smoke where we live this evening. There were spots of wood smoke everywhere I went this evening from recreational fireplace use. There was some faint wood smoke down the street but none on our property. This counts as an evening without wood smoke. It was 60 degrees with a rain mist at 6 PM.

Saturday 09/17/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:23:00.002-05:00

There was wood smoke in the air again this evening, as usual. But it was not bad for a Saturday night. The temperature is a little cool. There are less bonfires when the temperature is below 70 degrees.

5:00 PM: Faint wood smoke. 66 degrees, cloudy.

8:45 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air at this time.

9:30 PM: Faint wood smoke.

11:00 PM: No smoke.

Friday 09/16/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:21:00.001-05:00

It's Friday. The air is smoky. As usual.

4:45 PM: No smoke. Cloudy, 58 degrees.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: Light wood smoke. It could be from a bonfire or recreational fireplace use.

9:10 PM: Light wood smoke.

10:15 PM: Light wood smoke continues. Last check of the evening.

Thursday 09/15/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:18:00.002-05:00

We had our first frost this morning. A little earlier than usual.

There was no wood or yard waste smoke in the air this evening. It was a bit cool for bonfires. This time of year when the temperature gets this low we do sometimes have smoke from recreational fireplaces. Not tonight. The temperature at 6 PM was 56 degrees with weak sun.

Wednesday 09/14/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:16:00.001-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening. I wouldn't call this a miracle because it was a little cool for bonfires. When the temperature dips below 70 degrees there are less people polluting our precious air with bonfires. It was 56 degrees and sunny at 6 PM. This is the third evening in a row without any wood or yard waste smoke in the air. We love that rare fresh air.

Tuesday 09/13/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:07:00.002-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke pollution this evening where we live. There was a house on Beam just west of Chippewa on the North St. Paul side burning wood on the ground before 8 PM. The smoke was not coming our direction.

Monday 09/12/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T18:03:00.002-05:00

It was a miracle! We had a beautiful summery day with no wood smoke pollution. The temperature at 6 PM was 88 degrees with sunny skies and gusty winds. The temperature at 10:15 PM was in the 80s. The air was not fresh this evening, but I could not smell any wood or yard waste smoke in it. I am not sure what explanation there is for the absence of wood smoke this evening. The temperature was not too warm for bonfires. It was too windy to burn safely, but recreational wood burners do not care about fire safety. You will see them doing dangerous things all the time. Whatever the cause for our fresh air this evening, we are happy to have it.

Sunday 09/11/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-23T17:58:00.002-05:00

The asshole frequent burner was burning again, smoking up the air for a good two hours.

4:15 PM: Light wood smoke at this time from the asshole frequent burner in the area. The smoke comes and goes as it makes its way our direction before the breeze shifts. 87 degrees, sunny, low humidity and an otherwise beautiful day except for the wood smoke pollution.

4:30 PM: Faint wood smoke.

5:20 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

5:40 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

5:45 PM: Light wood smoke.

7:15 PM: No smoke. Fresh air for now.

8:20 PM: No smoke. Fresh air.

9:30 PM: No smoke.

11:00 PM: No smoke.

The air was not as polluted as it usually is.

Saturday 09/10/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-10T17:52:00.007-05:00

Heavy grass smoke from illegal yard waste burning this afternoon. Extremely heavy stinky wood smoke this evening. This is one of the smokiest nights ever in our years of living in this horrible city. Do you want to live in a polluted hell of a city like this?

Somebody who lives near the fire chief had an extremely smoky fire that smelled awful. The fire was so smoky it blanketed the entire neighborhood with a cloud of smoke. Everywhere we looked was a cloud of icky, stinky smoke. But somebody called the cops on the burner. I don't know who called the police, but I thank you.

3:15 PM: Light wood smoke that was gone a minute later.

4:00 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke. Someone is illegally burning yard waste and as heavy as the smoke is, they cannot be far away. 83 degrees, sunny, and beautiful except for the damn yard waste smoke.

4:25 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke. The illegal yard waste burning continues.

5:00 PM: No smoke.

5:50 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke. I wish these asshole yard waste burners would burn all of their waste at one time instead of burning a little here and there and dragging it out over several hours.

6:00 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke continues. It would be a nice evening to sit outside but if we do, we will be inhaling burning grass smoke with every breath. North St. Paul sucks!

6:20 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke continues. That's about two and a half hours of intermittent grass smoke this evening. And the bonfires will start soon, making this hell of a city even smokier.

6:50 PM: Faint grass smoke continues.

7:30 PM: Light horrible stinky wood smoke.

8:00 PM: Strong horrible stinky wood smoke. The entire area is blanketed with heavy smoke like a cloud. The air pollution in North St. Paul is so heavy you can see it everywhere you look.

I went out at this time for a cruise to find out where the burning is. I did not cover most streets. There is no breeze this evening. Smoke is rising and gently floating to the southwest. I hit a couple of areas like Water Tower Park and the Silver Lake area. I found smoke everywhere but could locate only four areas of burning.

1) A home near the fire chief's house was producing a huge amount of smoke that blanketed the entire neighborhood with a horrible smelling cloud of smoke. This was the heaviest smoke we have experienced in all our years in North St. Paul. At first, I thought it might be the fire chief's house doing the burning, but it was one or two homes south of him. Somebody called the police to have the fire put out because there were two police cars parked outside the home when I came back. I could smell the smoke from that burner all the way down to Chippewa & 19th. I didn't go any further beyond that and would not be shocked if the smoke went farther.

2) A home on Lake Blvd. is having their second smoky bonfire of the week that I witnessed. They also had a smoky recreational fire on Thursday 09/08/2011. They bought the house in May 2010. These assholes move into the area and they become frequent burners. That's all we need. We had two smoky burners leave the area because of foreclosure since July 2010 and we have a new frequent burner to make up for the loss.

3) A home on 1st near 17th is having a bonfire in the backyard. I noticed as I was driving down 17th.

4) I headed down 15th to make a quick pass through the Water Tower Park area. I found one smoky bonfire on 15th just east of 3rd.

I only found four fires, but it was smoky all over. Other than the second house in the list on Lake Blvd., I did not find any other homes burning near Silver Lake. But it was still early when I was out. Most burning doesn't begin until after dark, 9 PM or about.

I took a little consolation in the fact that it was very smoky in front of city council member Bob Bruton's house on Lake Blvd. near Poplar. I noticed it as I was passing through the area to go around back onto Helen. It is only 73 degrees outside and we would have our windows open if not for the heavy wood smoke. I hope Bob had his windows open and inhaled that wood smoke deep into his lungs. Bruton supports wood smoke pollution.

8:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke back home. It's a different smell from that stinky smoke the house on Helen was producing, number one on the list above. Somebody else probably started a bonfire. It's Saturday, we have beautiful weather, and people are burning like crazy in this horrible shit town. My clothes stink of wood smoke from being outside.

North St. Paul sucks! Horrible shitty city! Don't buy a home here. You will be sorry!

8:52 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke at this time. A different smell from before. Another bonfire in the neighborhood.

9:20 PM: Faint wood smoke.

9:30 PM: The air is not fresh but mostly clear at this time. The wind must have shifted because the burning doesn't stop this early in hell on earth North St. Paul.

10:40 PM: Light wood smoke.

11:05 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

11:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Smokier now than before.

11:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Another long, smoky night in North St. Paul.

Do you want to live in a city like this?

Friday 09/09/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-10T17:17:00.002-05:00

Smoke from a forest fire near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area up close to the Canadian border made its way into the Twin Cities today, or so says the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. I was home today and noticed a wood smoke of sorts around 12:45 PM. As polluted as North St. Paul is with all the wood and yard waste burners around here, I thought that someone was burning waste in their backyard at first. After the smoke got heavier, leaving a heavy haze visible in the air, I realized that it was more than just a regular backyard burner. While the smoke made the air hazier than normal in North St. Paul, the smell of the wood smoke did not come close to approaching what we regularly experience in this town. The smoke covered most of the Twin Cities, reportedly extending from Maplewood and White Bear Lake all the way down to Minneapolis and beyond to Shakopee.

All you people finding this blog by searching for the cause of the wood smoke in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Friday, September 9th, 2011, should know that we regularly have heavier wood smoke than this in North St. Paul. Living in North St. Paul is like living in hell. So if you didn't like the smoke you experienced today from the BWCA forest fires, don't think about buying a house in North St. Paul because this city is much worse.

12:45 PM: A faint to light smoke is in the air that smells like some sort of wood. I figured someone was burning in their backyard, as happens every miserable day in this horrible city.

1:00 PM: A moderately strong wood type of smoke is in the air. The air is hazy at this time. We don't usually see a smoky haze in the air like this from the nightly burning that happens in this city. The odor of wood smoke is often much heavier than this in North St. Paul.

2:00 PM: Light wood type smoke in the air. The intensity of the smoke has decreased.

3:00 PM: A faint wood type smoke continues.

4:00 PM: The smoke is almost completely gone.

5:00 PM: The smoke from earlier is now gone. 85 degrees, sunny, a very nice day.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

7:25 PM: No smoke.

After dark, I went out near Silver Lake looking for smoke. There were homes burning on Lake Blvd. Wednesday and yesterday and I found another one burning tonight. That's three evenings in a row that a home on Lake Blvd. was burning. A home on Lake Blvd., which happens to be directly behind city council member Jan Walczak's home, was having a very smoky bonfire. They had another very smoky bonfire earlier this year and may have had more. I don't go looking for burners over at Silver Lake that often. There was no breeze at this time, but the smoke was drifting south. I could not smell the smoke along Lake Blvd. or along Helen St., but the wood smoke was very heavy on 19th between Helen & Lake. I also found more wood smoke on 19th near Longview from a home on Longview that was burning, sending flaming embers up into their neighbor's tree. Assholes who burn wood are not cautious about fire safety. You will see these recreational burners doing dangerous things all the time like having a huge bonfire right next to their neighbor's wooden fence.

8:00 PM: No smoke where we are.

8:25 PM: Faint wood smoke. I knew the air would be smoky. Earlier, the smoke from the two fires I found was drifting south. I guess the burner producing the smoke we smell is to our north. No matter which way the wind blows, the air is smoky every evening in this horrible nightmare city. North St. Paul sucks!

9:00 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.

9:40 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke. The smoke is getting heavier. It looks like the air conditioning will have to remain on all night long. There is no chance of opening the windows any time soon.

10:45 PM: Light wood smoke.

11:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues. This was the last check of the night.

The air was fresh when I woke Saturday morning. It's common in North St. Paul for people to leave their bonfires smoldering all night long. It happens all the time. But not this morning.

Thursday 09/08/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-10T16:57:00.002-05:00

The asshole frequent burner who burned Sunday and Monday was burning again this evening. This stupid city allows burning every day. Somebody is always burning. That's why this city is a horrible place to live. But that wasn't the worst of things tonight. We didn't get much wood smoke, but we got a heavy dose of some sort of chemical in the air as we were preparing for bed.

4:35 PM: No smoke where we are. I saw smoke rising from the asshole frequent burner's yard on the way home. I can't smell his smoke. But he always burns wood. Not to cook. Not to have a bonfire. He just burns to produce huge clouds of smoke and burn waste. He also likes to burn grass. 84 degrees, sunny, and beautiful at this time.

4:45 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time. The smoke has the characteristic smell of whatever the asshole frequent burner burns. The wind shifted and is bringing some of the smoke down here.

5:00 PM: A very faint wood smoke is in the air at this time.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

I went out at this time over by Silver Lake looking for wood smoke. You can always find wood smoke near Silver Lake after dark. I found a house on the western side of Lake Blvd. near Swan Ave. that was having a very smoky bonfire. The smoke extended up to Lake & Poplar, very near city council member Bob Bruton's house where the smoke was very heavy. Bob Bruton supports recreational burning and the smoke it produces. I hope the smoke made it up to his house and I hope he had his windows open to breathe it. This is the second evening that a house on Lake Blvd. was burning and producing heavy smoke. This isn't the first smoky recreational fire the house that was burning tonight has had. They bought the house in 2010 and are adding to the wood smoke pollution in the area.

9:15 PM: No smoke where we are, but the air is not fresh. There is some sort of pollutant in the air at this time.

10:00 PM: Air is not fresh. 70 degrees.

10:35 PM: A heavy chemical smell is in the air at this time. The air reeks! You cannot breathe this air! I don't know what it is. It smells like shoe polish or some sort of industrial solvent. Close the windows!

10:55 PM: The heavy chemical smell remains in the air. No chance of opening the windows before bed tonight. I hate this city.

11:50 PM: A light chemical smell continues. I checked the air on the way back to bed. I have no idea what toxic substance is in our air tonight.

Wednesday 09/07/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-10T16:35:00.003-05:00

It was smoky as hell tonight from a yard waste burner who lives a few homes down from city council member Bob Bruton. Bad luck brought the heavy smoke right into our neighborhood a distance away from the source. Wood or yard waste smoke goes wherever the wind blows it. Tonight the wind brought the very heavy air pollution into our area.

4:10 PM: No smoke. Sunny, 78 degrees, it is a beautiful day.

4:55 PM: Faint to light grass and possibly wood smoke coming in the windows. Some asshole is illegally burning yard waste somewhere. Close the windows!

5:05 PM: Light to moderate wood and grass smoke. North St. Paul sucks!

5:30 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. It is common for yard waste burners to start a bonfire then rake their grass clippings into it. I suspect this is being done.

6:10 PM: Light grass smoke. I don't know what all is being burned, but sticking my head outside to take a few breaths of air left me with a sore throat and tingling sinuses! I got a sore throat from the air pollution in North St. Paul! That's what a horrible place North St. Paul is to live. The air pollution is so bad a few breaths of it causes pain.

6:13 PM: Moderate grass smoke. Yard waste burning does not often get this heavy. I had to find the source. I found the burner a few homes down and across the street from city council member Bob Bruton's house. The burner was near the intersection of Polar Ave. & Lake Blvd. on the western edge of Silver Lake. The wind was blowing west, so I don't know if the smoke made it up to Bruton's home. That asshole Bob Bruton supports smoky air. If anyone deserves to breathe that heavy air pollution, it is a supporter of it like him. Being as far away as we are, the smoke was very heavy. It must have been even heavier for the neighbors in the path of the smoke. My throat was more sore than before from the continued exposure to the smoke. What would happen if someone was burning poison ivy along with their yard waste? You know North St. Paul's air quality is very bad when it gives you a sore throat.

6:30 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

7:00 PM: Light to moderate smoke of some type. I'm not sure what all is being burned.

7:10 PM: Moderate wood smoke. That's over 2 hours now of heavy smoke pollution in the air. Does North St. Paul sound like the kind of city you want to live in?

8:00 PM: A faint smoke of some type is in the air. That's over 3 hours of wood and yard waste smoke in the air already this evening and it is still early.

8:15 PM: A very faint trace of smoke of some type is in the air. Taking a few breaths left me with irritated sinuses. I can feel the burn in my sinuses. 73 degrees at this time. In a normal city that isn't shitty like North St. Paul, we would have our windows open and be enjoying the cool evening air. But you can't in this hell on earth town. North St. Paul sucks!

9:25 PM: No smoke. A reprieve from the torture of North St. Paul's hellish air pollution!

11:00 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke. The air has been smoky with wood or grass for the better part of the last 6 hours. This is normal for North St. Paul. There is no chance of opening the windows tonight. As always, we go to bed with the windows closed up tight because of North St. Paul's normal air pollution.

North St. Paul sucks!

Tuesday 09/06/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-10T16:30:00.002-05:00

It was a beautiful evening. There was a little smoke in the air, but not much. Tonight was about as good as it gets in North St. Paul.

5:00 PM: No smoke. 72 degrees, sunny, beautiful.

5:30 PM: A very faint trace of smoke of some unknown type is in the air. I don't know what it is. It doesn't smell like a grill.

6:00 PM: A very faint trace of some unknown smoke remains in the air.

9:00 PM: The air is not fresh at this time, but I cannot say there is anything in it. It could be highly diluted smoke from a distant burner. I know fresh air and this isn't it.

11:35 PM: No smoke.

This will count as an evening with no wood smoke. There was something in the air but it was not strong enough to determine what it was.

Monday 09/05/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-10T16:28:00.000-05:00

It was another smoky evening for us in North St. Paul. Every evening people are burning in this city and the air is almost always smoky. You do not want to live in a polluted hell like this.

4:07 PM: Very faint wood smoke. Welcome home to smoky air. The asshole frequent burner who was burning this time yesterday is burning again at this time. I can see smoke rising from his backyard as I passed through the area.

4:17 PM: No smoke. 70 degrees, sunny.

4:30 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke.

4:50 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. The wind has shifted direction bringing smoky air from the asshole frequent burner's yard right to ours. If the smoke is this heavy where we are, how heavy must it be living right next door to that asshole?

5:45 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke continues. The frequent burner is still burning.

6:05 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke.

6:45 PM: Faint to light smoke of some type. I don't know what is being burned now.

7:00 PM: Very faint to faint smoke of unknown type continues. Maybe some sort of waste is being burned with wood.

7:50 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke. It smells like wood now.

8:30 PM: Very faint to faint smoldering wood smoke. The asshole frequent burner must have left his wood to smolder itself out. He likes to do that. He may produce huge clouds of smoke for two hours but produce smoky air for five or six hours after the clouds of smoke are gone.

9:20 PM: Light smoldering wood smoke continues. That's over 5 hours of smoky air coming and going this evening. I went to bed early tonight so this was the last check of the evening.

Do you want to live in a city like this?

Sunday 09/04/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-10T16:19:00.000-05:00

It was another smoky Sunday. Somebody is always burning in North St. Paul. You can't even enjoy a Sunday without smoky air in this horrible city. A beautiful cool and breezy Sunday was ruined by wood smoke. This is how you will live if you make the mistake of buying a home in North St. Paul, MN.

11:33 AM: Very faint grass smoke coming in the windows. It was gone after a few minutes.

4:00 PM: Light wood smoke coming and going. I went out and found the asshole frequent burner is burning again this Sunday. He is producing huge clouds of smoke. We are a distance away from him and are catching very little of it. I feel sorry for the people who live next to him. Close the windows! Sunny and breezy at this time. I forgot to write down the temperature. It was about 70 degrees.

4:45 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke varying with the breeze.

6:00 PM: No smoke here for a while. I went out and saw that the frequent burner was still burning, producing huge clouds of smoke. None of it is making its way down here.

6:15 PM: Light wood smoke coming and going.

6:30 PM: No smoke.

7:32 PM: Faint wood smoke varying with the breeze.

7:45 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.

9:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke. This makes over 5 hours of smoky air coming and going this Sunday evening. Do you want smoky air for 5 hours on a Sunday?

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke, very stinky. The smell of this smoke is much different than that produced by the frequent burner. Another burner has joined in on the air pollution party it seems. 61 degrees.

10:45 PM: Light stinky wood smoke continues. No chance of opening the windows before bed. North St. Paul sucks.

Saturday 09/03/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-04T14:04:00.001-05:00

It was a little smoky this evening in North St. Paul, MN. I can't say the smoke was from burning wood. I'm not sure what it was.

4:00 PM: A very faint smokiness of unknown type is in the air at this time. I don't know what it is. It does not smell like wood, grass, nor food grilling. The air is dirty. 76 degrees, sunny, breezy.

5:30 PM: A very faint smoke of unknown type continues in the air. We can smell it in the house a little. It is not strong enough to close the windows. It is a nuisance.

6:35 PM: The air is not fresh at this time, but I can't smell any smoke in it. The breeze has died. Cloudy, 71 degrees.

7:00 PM: A very faint smoke of unknown type is in the air again.

7:25 PM: Some very faint grill smoke at this time. The wind has picked up again.

8:15 PM: A very faint smoke of unknown type.

9:30 PM: A very faint smoke of unknown type continues.

11:00 PM: No smoke. The air is mostly clear at this time.

I did not smell wood or yard waste smoke in the air this evening. I can't say what it was. It could have been diluted wood smoke from a distant burner as it was windy this evening. I may have to call this an evening with no wood smoke.

Friday 09/02/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-04T13:57:00.000-05:00

There was some light wood smoke in the air in the early part of the evening. The frequent burner in the area was burning for his second time this week. In past years, he has burned five times a week all summer long. He is slowing down.

4:30 PM: No smoke where we are. 78 degrees. The frequent burner is burning again. He's not cooking food, not having a bonfire (it is too early for bonfires), he's just burning to produce smoke. He must be one of those nuts who likes the smell of smoke and he makes everyone for blocks around smell it, too.

5:20 PM: No smoke. Fresh air.

6:40 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air. It could be from the frequent burner, the wind shifting our direction. It does not smell like his usual smoke. It could be someone else burning, too. There is so much burning in this horrible, shitty city these days.

7:00 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. The windows were closed prior to this time. Another evening stuck in the house like prisoners because of air pollution.

7:30 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

8:00 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

9:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air!

10:00 PM: There is something strange in the air. I don't know what it is. It stinks.

10:45 PM: No smoke. Last check of the evening.

Thursday 09/01/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-04T13:50:00.000-05:00

It was a hot and humid day. I went to bed early tonight. I did not notice any wood smoke while I was awake. The temperature at 4:30 PM was 92 degrees with high humidity. There was a faint smokiness of some type in the air later in the evening and a grill smoke at the time I went to bed. This evening counts as one without wood smoke.

Wednesday 08/31/2011 Air Pollution

2011-09-01T17:46:00.000-05:00

There was no wood smoke this evening due to warmth and high humidity. It was not too warm for bonfires, but coupled with the high humidity, the air was muggy and uncomfortable. Insects like mosquitoes (one bit me on the neck) and whatever flew into my ear this evening were heavy, too. The temperature in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area was 84 degrees around 5 PM, with the weather widget on this blog indicating the temperature at 81 degrees at Century College in White Bear Lake. As we often experience, when the air conditioning is on, people aren't burning. People burn all over the place when the weather is fair enough to have the windows open. I went out this evening after dark and did not find any wood or yard waste smoke in any of the usual places. With the holiday weekend upon us, we will be glad to have any fresh air we can get in North St. Paul. It could be a long, smoky weekend.

Tuesday 08/30/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-31T19:04:00.000-05:00

With the weather forecast calling for rain sprinkles this evening, I hoped we would be spared the usual smoke pollution. No such luck. The smoke wasn't heavy, but it was present as usual.

4:10 PM: Light grass smoke in the air. People are coming home from work and are being welcomed by burning yard waste. That says "you have arrived in North St. Paul". It is 68 degrees, cloudy, and scattered rain showers are in the forecast. It looks like rain at this time. It is common for people to hurry to burn yard waste before rain approaches.

4:15 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke. This is heavy for yard waste smoke. The burner is probably not far, and might be on this block. Looking around, I do not see any smoke rising from any of the backyards upwind. It is breezy at this time. I am not going to drive around looking for it as we are about to prepare dinner.

4:37 PM: Light grass smoke. The grass smoke comes and goes. The breeze is shifting or the burner is burning in batches.

4:39 PM: Light drizzle fell for a few minutes. The rain sprinkle arrived. I hoped this would be the end of the burning for the evening, but it wasn't.

5:54 PM: A very faint wood smoke is in the air. There is a light rain mist falling at this time.

6:09 PM: A very faint smoke of some type is in the air.

6:22 PM: Faint grass smoke in the air again. The windows are open. It is impossible to not notice the smoke coming in.

6:45 PM: No smoke. Fresh air.

7:15 PM: No smoke.

7:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke for a minute then it was gone. I don't know what the hell is going on in this city. It is misting at this time.

8:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

8:45 PM: Faint, varying wood smoke. It is drizzling at this time.

9:20 PM: No smoke. 64 degrees.

10:15 PM: No smoke.

I checked one more time between the last check and midnight and there was no smoke in the air.

Monday 08/29/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-29T16:44:00.001-05:00

The North St. Paul nightmare goes all night long.

3:30 AM: A faint, smoldering strange smelling smoke lingers in the air from last night's burning. Nobody around us was burning. I don't know who was doing it. But they left whatever they were burning to smolder all night long.

4:30 PM: No smoke. 80 degrees, sunny, with a comfortable humidity level under 50%. It is a beautiful summer evening shaping up and you know it is going to be smoky in North St. Paul. It always is. You will find people burning within a quarter mile of you any day of the week just about.

6:45 PM: No smoke. 76 degrees.

7:15 PM: No smoke. Mostly cloudy at this time.

8:00 PM: No smoke where we live. Others are not so lucky. I found three areas with smoky air. One was smoky from burning grass, another from burning wood, and it was smoky as usual along Silver Lake with the smoke the heaviest near the beach.

9:00 PM: No smoke. The fresh air continues

10:00 PM: Still no smoke.

11:00 PM: No smoke. Off to bed.

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening. It was a miracle! The air was wonderfully fresh all evening and all night. The temperature dropped quickly this evening. We took advantage of the very rare fresh air in North St. Paul to use a fan to cool the house before bed. The air was fresh when we went to bed and still fresh after midnight so I opened a few windows feeling confident there would be no burning tonight. Late night burning is not as prevalent this year as it was in 2008 and 2009, but it happens every now and then. There is nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night to a house full of wood smoke.

Sunday 08/28/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-29T16:42:00.000-05:00

It was another smoky as hell Sunday night in our area of North St. Paul, MN. I don't know what was being burned tonight, but it smelled terrible. Yard waste smoke in the afternoon, some strange stuff being burned at night.

12:45 AM: A very faint trace of wood smoke from Saturday night's burning continues.

6:30 AM: A very faint smoldering wood smoke smell is in the air. Nobody near us was burning last night. I don't know where this smoldering smoke is coming from.

12:15 PM: Faint rass and what smells like wood being burned along with it. I smelled the smoke coming in the windows for a minute then it was gone.

1:43 PM: Light grass smoke. An illegal yard waste burner is doing his thing. The smoke lasted a minute then it was gone.

2:15 PM: Light wood and grass smoke. Is this the same yard waste burner as earlier or a different one? So many people burn yard waste these days you don't know.

2:30 PM: Faint grass smoke continues. It's been a continuous 15 minutes of grass smoke. The windows were closed. I hate this city.

3:00 PM: No smoke. Windows reopened.

4:00 PM: No smoke. 76 degrees.

5:15 PM: No smoke. 74 degrees, partly cloudy.

6:30 PM: No smoke.

7:30 PM: No smoke.

8:40 PM: Moderate, really terrible smelling smoke. Something strange is being burned. It could be wood or tree branches with something else. I can't say what it is. It's a shame that we have to close the windows on a nice, cool summer evening like we usually do. The city of North St. Paul sucks!

8:45 PM: Light strange smoke continues.

9:15 PM: Faint strange smoke continues.

9:45 PM: Light to moderate strange smoke continues.

11:15 PM: A light smoldering strange smoke continues. No chance of opening the windows tonight.

There was a faint smokiness in the air when I woke around 3:30 AM Monday morning. Does North St. Paul sound like a good place to live to you? North St. Paul sucks!

Saturday 08/27/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-28T11:22:00.000-05:00

It was an unusually mild evening for wood smoke pollution. Last night we endured extremely heavy wood smoke. Tonight it was much less smoky.

12:30 PM: A very faint smoke of some unknown type is coming in the windows at this time. It is not strong enough to tell what it is. My guess is burning grass.

1:11 PM: A very faint grass smoke is in the air. Somewhere off in the distance someone is illegally burning yard waste. It can be smelled in the house. If it lasts long, the windows will need to be closed.

3:00 PM: No smoke.

4:00 PM: No smoke.

5:00 PM: There is a very faint smokiness of some type in the air. It could be from a charcoal grill. I can't say for sure. 75 degrees, cloudy.

5:45 PM: No smoke. The air is not fresh at this time. 76 degrees, cloudy.

6:45 PM: The air is not fresh. Something is in the air. Sunny now.

7:20 PM: There is a very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. There is no breeze.

7:50 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke continues. Somewhere off in the distance someone is burning wood.

8:25 PM: There is no noticeable wood smoke in the air but it is not fresh.

9:30 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke at this time.

10:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time. It has gotten a little stronger. The wood smoke is very weak for a Saturday night.

10:15 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

10:30 PM: There is no noticeable wood smoke in the air at this time. The air is not fresh.

10:45 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

11:15 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke.

There was a very faint trace of wood smoke in the air when I woke up after midnight. A very faint trace of a smoldering wood smoke lingered in the air after 6 AM Sunday morning. Whoever was burning off in the distance left their bonfire to smolder all night long.

Friday 08/26/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-27T09:28:00.001-05:00

It was an extremely smoky hell of an evening in North St. Paul! To put it another way, it was a normal Friday night.

4:20 PM: Very faint wood smoke coming and going. The asshole frequent burner is burning again, the third time this week. I don't need to drive behind his house to see that he's burning because it's that distinctive smell of whatever he burns, and you can smell it blocks away. 84 degrees, sunny, a little humid. The air conditioning was turned on because of the warmth. If the windows were open, they would need to be closed.

4:25 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke coming and going from the asshole frequent burner. If the smoke is this heavy a distance away, how heavy would it be living next door?

5:05 PM: No smoke.

5:50 PM: No smoke. 87 degrees is the official Twin Cities temperature at this time.

6:30 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

7:30 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

8:30 PM: No smoke.

9:00 PM: No smoke.

9:20 PM: No smoke. Where is it?

9:42 PM: Very faint wood smoke in the air. It's starting to build.

9:56 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky outside at this time. You don't want to breathe this polluted air.

10:15 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air pollution has gotten heavier. This is North St. Paul. This is how you will live if you buy a home in this horrible shitty city.

10:49 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues. How many hours will the air be heavily polluted tonight? The temperature has dropped. The outside air has a pleasant coolness to it. We should be able to shut the air conditioning off and allow the house to cool overnight. But we can't! North St. Paul sucks!

11:15 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. Extremely smoky air at this time! You can't breathe this air! You'll get sick to your stomach pretty quick if you breathe this polluted air! I still can't believe the idiots on the city council make us breathe this air pollution.

11:35 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues. There is no chance of opening the windows tonight. Last check of the night.

When I woke Saturday morning the air was clean and fresh! We can finally open the windows and enjoy the cool air! North St. Paul sucks!

Thursday 08/25/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-27T09:14:00.000-05:00

The asshole frequent burner was burning again. We were spared the brunt of most of his smoke pollution. Others were not so lucky. North St. Paul sucks! A city run by idiots who love polluted air.

5:40 PM: No smoke. 82 degrees, sunny.

6:35 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke at this time. Close the windows! The asshole frequent burner is burning at this time. I can tell his smoke because whatever he burns produces a distinctive smell. I don't usually need to go drive through the area to see that he's burning. You can smell it blocks away. The smoke came and went until around 8 PM. We did not catch most of the smoke. The breeze is blowing every which direction. We catch a little for less than a minute at a time before it goes.

8:15 PM: No smoke. The windows have been opened. About 80 degrees at this time.

9:00 PM: No smoke.

9:30 PM: No smoke here on our property. But it is smoky a few homes down. Sometimes we get lucky. I went out and found an area with burning about two blocks away from us. There is not much of a breeze at this time. The smoke from the area of burning is drifting toward our street but is not making it to our property. I can't smell the smoke in our yard at all. I walk down the street 100 yards or so and there is wood smoke.

10:15 PM: There is no wood smoke but the air is not fresh. Something is in the air. It isn't much and isn't enough to require the windows to be closed.

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

Wednesday 08/24/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-27T08:59:00.004-05:00

There was almost no wood smoke in the air this evening. Just a little bit for a short time. It was a beautiful evening.

5:15 PM: No smoke. 80 degrees, sunny, with a comfortable humidity level.

7:30 PM: No smoke yet.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

8:25 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time. Somebody is burning somewhere. It is not strong enough to require the closure of windows at this point. If it gets any stronger, the windows will need to be closed.

9:00 PM: No smoke.

10:00 PM: No smoke.

10:30 PM: No smoke.

11:30 PM: The air is not fresh. I cannot smell any smoke, but there is something in the air. I don't know what. Last check of the night.

Tuesday 08/23/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-27T08:54:00.001-05:00

There was almost no smoke in the air this evening. The heat and humidity may have discouraged people from burning.

4:12 PM: No smoke. 87 degrees, sunny, and humid.

5:00 PM: No smoke 87 degrees.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke. 84 degrees and muggy.

9:00 PM: No smoke. The air is wonderfully fresh at this time. Step outside and take a deep breath.

10:00 PM: No smoke.

10:52 PM: A very faint smoke of some type is in the air. It is not strong enough to determine what it is.

11:30 PM: No smoke. Last check of the evening.

Monday 08/22/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-27T08:48:00.001-05:00

It was a miracle! There was no wood or yard waste smoke pollution tonight. After last night's extreme smoke pollution, we deserved a break. It was 84 degrees and sunny 4:30 PM. It felt a little humid at the time and felt more humid as the evening wore on.

You never know if it is going to be smoky or not in North St. Paul. More often than not, it is. If it isn't raining, the air is usually smoky. The city ordinance gives recreational burners all of the rights and no rights to the rest of us who have to breathe that polluted air. We live at the mercy of air polluters. North St. Paul, Minnesota, is hell on earth!

Sunday 08/21/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-27T08:45:00.001-05:00

It was a smoky hell of a Sunday evening in North St. Paul, MN. There is no day of rest for recreational air polluters in this horrible city. The idiots who run this city make it legal to burn all seven days a week and somewhere somebody is burning just about every day.

4:13 PM: Light wood smoke coming and going. I went out to find the asshole frequent burner in the area burning again. He burns not to have a bonfire, not to cook food, but just to burn and produce smoke. The idiots who run this stupid city allow it. He knows he can start burning at 4 PM all seven days a week and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Close the windows! I hate North St. Paul. It's a horrible shitty city. Don't move here. You will hate it, too.

4:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke coming and going at this time. Most of the smoke isn't making it our direction. A new homeowner right behind the asshole frequent burner moved into the city last year. If the smoke is a nuisance a distance away like we are, I cannot imagine how strong the smoke must be living right behind him.

5:10 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke coming and going. 76 degrees, sunny, and what was a beautiful day is ruined by wood smoke pollution. North St. Paul sucks!

5:30 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. It is extremely smoky at this time! It is still early. North St. Paul sucks!

6:00 PM: No smoke where we are. The asshole frequent burner is still burning. That's two hours now. Luck smiled on us as most of the smoke is not coming our direction. But we still have the windows closed. If the wind shifts, our home will quickly fill with smoky air. Do you want to breathe smoky air inside your home when you are watching TV? If it wasn't so smoky, we would be sitting outside enjoying the final days of summer. But we can't!

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

7:00 PM: No smoke here at this time.

7:15 PM: No smoke at this time.

7:30 PM: No smoke.

7:46 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. A shift in the wind has brought the smoke back to us. The asshole frequent burner is still burning. That's four hours he has burned already today with no end in sight!

8:30 PM: It looks like the asshole frequent burner is finished burning. That's four hours he smoked up the air today! Four hours of hell!

9:05 PM: Faint wood smoke. Wood smoke in the air for five hours now!

10:00 PM: Faint wood smoke.

11:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Very smoky air continues this late. That's seven hours of smoky air this evening!

I went out this evening and found two areas of burning and a third area with heavy smoke where I could not pinpoint the source. There was a wood smoke haze visible in the street lights in two areas. Air pollution so heavy you can see it. A home near the intersection of Navajo and Chippewa was burning tonight in the front yard, producing smoke I could smell blocks away. This home had a campaign sign in the front yard for city council member Jan Walczak in 2008. Ms. Walczak supports this air pollution. I first contacted her in May 2008 about this city's horrible wood smoke problem and she did nothing about it. She refused to help. Along the southern edge of Silver Lake, I saw a smoky haze in the street lights near the park on the eastern shore. I suspected the white house on Reardon was burning again and it was. Heavy wood smoke was being produced, so heavy the backyard of the home burning was a cloud of wood smoke. The burning appeared to have just ended as I passed by. Wood smoke haze was visible in the street lights around the home up to a block away. There was a third area of burning somewhere between the two I found. A haze of wood smoke was visible in the street light in front of city council member Jan Walczak's home. I was at Helen & 19th when I saw the smoke haze half a block down in the street light. Someone in that area was burning and producing the smoke. I couldn't find the source. I also noticed smoke by the cemetery way up at Helen & Lydia. I don't know where that was coming from. It smelled like the same type of smoke produced over on Reardon. There was not much of a breeze at this time which made it difficult to find the source of the burning. No breeze to push the smoke out of the area.

It was a horrible, smoky night in the city of North St. Paul, MN. Wood smoke all over the place. This is pretty normal in North St. Paul. It has been like this for years and the idiots on the city council have not done a thing about it. Do you want to live in a city like this?

Saturday 08/19/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-21T08:41:00.000-05:00

It was another smoky evening in North St. Paul, Minnesota. Another evening we must remain shut in our home like prisoners.

I did not notice any yard waste burning today. That was a pleasant surprise.

4:30 PM: A faint smoke of some type is in the air. It could be from a grill. I don't know what it is.

5:35 PM: A faint smoke of undetermined type remains in the air.

5:55 PM: No smoke. 77 degrees, a little cloudy with the sun shining through.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke. Just a little smoke from grilling of food. Nothing to complain about.

7:52 PM: A very faint wood smoke is in the air at this time. Someone is burning wood off in the distance.

8:05 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. No doubt about it. Someone has a bonfire going. Windows closed.

9:15 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. The air pollution is getting heavier. You would not want to sit outside and breathe this smoky air. North St. Paul is a horrible place to live.

10:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It's smoky outside. It is a shame because the air is nice and cool. In a city that isn't horrible like North St. Paul, we would enjoy the cool breeze blowing through the house. But in this horrible city we live like prisoners.

Midnight: Very faint to faint wood smoke in the air varying with the breeze. It is a little windy at this time. The air is cool. It would be so nice to open the windows to let the cool breeze blow through the house. It is 77 degrees inside the house and a good 10 degrees cooler outside. But we can't open the windows because of the wood smoke in the air.

When I woke Sunday morning the air was fresh. Finally we can open the windows.

Friday 08/19/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-21T08:31:00.000-05:00

4:10 PM: No smoke.

5:30 PM: No smoke. Sunny and very nice. 83 degrees.

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

8:00 PM: No smoke where we live. A quarter mile to the west someone is burning wood and a block north of that somebody is burning grass. The breeze is heading our direction but the smoke isn't getting to our property.

9:00 PM: A very faint trace of some type of smoke is in the air. It is not strong enough to determine its type.

10:00 PM: A very faint smoke of some type is in the air. I don't know what it is. The breeze is coming out of the west. There was wood and grass burning that direction earlier. Maybe the diluted smoke from that burning is making it to us.

11:10 PM: A faint smoke of some type is in the air. It has gotten stronger but I cannot determine what it is. It has more of a sulfur smell than a wood smoke smell. The wind pattern is out of the west, not from downtown North St. Paul. It isn't from the roofing company.

11:45 PM: A faint smoke of some type continues in the air. Last check of the evening.

The air was good and fresh when I woke Saturday morning.

Thursday 08/18/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-21T08:21:00.000-05:00

It was another smoky evening in this horrible city. I had high hopes we might make it through the night without any smoke pollution. But somebody started burning after 11 PM.

5:15 PM: No smoke. Sunny, 83 degrees, and beautiful!

7:05 PM: No smoke yet.

10:40 PM: Still no smoke yet. At this point I thought we might have an evening without any burning. No such luck. Close the windows for bed. We cannot risk leaving the windows open at night because of late night burning.

11:20 PM: Light wood and what smells like grass smoke. Somebody is burning wood and what may be grass.

You can be assured of smoky air almost every nice evening in North St. Paul, MN. It has been like this for years and the damn idiots on the city council are not going to put a stop to it any time soon. North St. Paul sucks!

Wednesday 08/17/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-18T10:06:00.001-05:00

It was another very smoky evening in North St. Paul. It's smoky like this more evenings than not. Do you want to buy a home in a city like this? When we came to this city, the air was fresh every evening. Had we known North St. Paul was going to get as polluted as this, we would have never moved here.

4:15 PM: No smoke. It is a beautiful evening sure to be ruined by smoke pollution. We know it is going to be smoky because it almost always is when it is nice like this. 79 degrees, sunny, and beautiful at this time.

5:10 PM: A very faint trace of some type of smoke was in the air for a little while before disappearing. I don't know what was being burned. 80 degrees, sunny.

6:30 PM: No smoke. Beautiful fresh air! Spending time outside at this time enjoying the little fresh air before the smoke starts.

7:30 PM: No smoke. This is a perfect evening to be outside.

9:00 PM: There is an odor in the air. I don't know what it is.

9:30 PM: Light to moderate wood and some other type of smoke. It smells like wood, charcoal, and something else. The air is smoky. Too smoky to leave the windows open.

9:50 PM: Moderate wood and some other type of smoke. Someone may be burning some household waste along with the wood. The smoke is heavy at this time. I don't know where the burning is coming from. None of our nearby neighbors appears to be burning. It could be blocks away. The smoke travels wherever the wind blows it.

10:00 PM: Moderate wood and some type of waste being burned. It could be paper. I don't know what it is. The air reeks! North St. Paul is hell on earth!

10:30 PM: Faint wood and maybe waste smoke continues. It is 69 degrees at this time. We should be able to have our windows open to enjoy the cool evening air. But we can't! North St. Paul is the worst place to live! I can hear my neighbor's air conditioner running at this time. Why should someone have to run the air conditioner with a temperature of 69 degrees and comfortable humidity? Because the air is so damn smoky they can't open the windows!

11:00 PM: A very faint smoke lingers in the air. There is no chance of opening the windows before bed.

11:20 PM: A faint wood smoke is in the air. It is a different smell from earlier. Somebody else may have started a bonfire.

North St. Paul sucks!

Tuesday 08/16/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-18T09:51:00.001-05:00

It was another very smoky evening in North St. Paul. There was a little smoke before the rain and a lot of smoke after. I did not expect any smoke tonight because of the rain. But some asshole started burning yard waste after the rain had passed. North St. Paul is a horrible place to live! This is one screwed up city.

4:25 PM: No smoke. 83 degrees, cloudy, it looks like rain.

5:25 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. The smoke did not last long. When I checked a few minutes later the smoke was gone. We may have caught a little of the smoke with a shift in the breeze taking it away. It is common for people to burn yard waste as rain approaches in North St. Paul, MN. When people burn yard waste, they often burn wood then rake their grass clippings into the bonfire.

5:45 PM: No smoke. A few drops of rain fell around this time for a few minutes.

6:00 PM: No smoke. The rain stopped.

6:45 PM: No smoke. Rain is starting again.

6:55 PM: No smoke. Pouring rain.

10:15 PM: No smoke. The rain stopped prior to this time.

10:35 PM: Very faint wood smoke coming in the windows. Somebody is burning. I hate this city.

10:40 PM: Moderate grass smoke. The air is very smoky from burning grass at this time. Some asshole sat around all evening waiting for the rain to cease to begin burning yard waste. This is how screwed up North St. Paul is. Who sits around waiting for the rain to end so he can run outside and burn grass?

11:05 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke continues. Last check of the evening. North St. Paul sucks.

Monday 08/15/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-18T09:38:00.001-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening. A miracle! With smoky air the prior four evenings, we deserved a little break from the North St. Paul air pollution. It was 83 degrees and sunny at 6 PM. It was a nice evening of fresh air.

Sunday 08/14/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-15T08:43:00.000-05:00

This was the fourth evening in a row with smoky air. We have been living like this for years and there is no end in sight. North St. Paul, MN, is a horrible place to live.

4:30 PM: No smoke. 80 degrees, sunny.

5:45 PM: No smoke. 81 degrees.

6:30 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke yet.

8:45 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. Who needs a bonfire on a Sunday evening? North St. Paul sucks. The windows have been closed.

9:00 PM: Faint wood smoke.

9:35 PM: Light wood and some other type of smoke. I am not sure what is being burned.

10:45 PM: Faint wood and possibly some other type of smoke continues. There is no chance of opening the windows before bed. North St. Paul sucks!

Saturday 08/13/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-14T08:30:00.001-05:00

It was another smoky evening in North St. Paul. A beautiful, cool evening that we could not enjoy because of this city's terrible air pollution problem. We stayed inside the house with the windows all closed like prisoners. We live like prisoners in our own home in this shitty city. You make payments on a home, you pay high property tax and you cannot enjoy your property because the air is almost always smoky during the evenings. North St. Paul, MN, is an awful place to live.

11:15 AM: Faint grass smoke around this time. I don't know how strong the smoke from illegal grass burning got. While I was taking a bath after doing work around the house, the bathroom fan sucked in the smoky air. This is how you will live if you make the mistake of buying a home in this horrible city.

11:35 AM: Very faint wood or grass or both types of smoke continues. A distant burner could be burning dead tree branches or who knows what. If it is combustible, people burn it in the city of North St. Paul, MN. This smoke is a nuisance but not strong enough to require the closure of windows. It did not last more than 15 minutes. 69 degrees and mostly cloudy at this time.

2:47 PM: A very faint smoke of some type is coming in the windows. It is not strong enough to require the closure of windows but is a nuisance regardless. I don't think you want to smell smoke of any type inside your home, do you?

3:24 PM: Very faint grass smoke at this time. Somewhere off in the distance there is another illegal yard waste burner. The burner could be a quarter to a half of a mile away. Smoke travels wherever the wind carries it. The smoke is a nuisance but not strong enough to require the closure of windows. Not yet.

3:35 PM: Very faint grass smoke continues. 78 degrees and mostly cloudy at this time.

4:00 PM: No smoke.

5:00 PM: No smoke. 78 degrees, partly cloudy.

6:20 PM: Faint wood smoke coming and going.

6:40 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

7:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

7:20 PM: Light wood smoke. Close the windows! It is going to be a long, smoky evening in North St. Paul. This city sucks!

7:30 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke.

7:45 PM: No real smoke but there is something in the air. The air is not fresh.

8:00 PM: No smoke at this time. But there is a strange smell in the air. It smells like a barn.

9:10 PM: Light wood smoke at this time.

9:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

10:35 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It is pretty smoky outside. You would not want to sit outside and breathe this air and you do not want it inside your home. How many people out there desire to breathe smoky air in bed? In North St. Paul, your options are to close your windows and live like shut-ins or tolerate the smoky air because the air is smoky more often than not. 68 degrees at this time. We should be free to open the windows and enjoy the cool evening air. But not in this shitty city!

11:20 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues. We hope the smoke is gone by morning so we can open the windows and get the warm, stuffy air out of here.

The air was fresh when I woke Sunday morning.

Friday 08/12/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-12T18:33:00.003-05:00

This morning, I had high hopes for fresh air tonight when I saw the weather forecast calling for rain. Now it appears that it will not rain tonight in the Twin Cities area as earlier forecast. That means smoky air again!

4:35 PM: No smoke where we live. The asshole frequent burner in the area is burning at this time. I saw clouds of smoke rising from his backyard as I came home. His smoke is not coming our direction for now. Others are not so lucky. 76 degrees, cloudy, and pretty nice.

5:00 PM: No smoke.

5:30 PM: No smoke.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

6:15 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke was in the air at this time.

6:25 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time. I went out and saw that the asshole frequent burner is still burning. That's almost 2 hours he has been burning so far this evening. Clouds of smoke are still rising from his backyard. We are lucky that most of his smoke has not come our direction. We have not had to close the windows yet. If it gets any smokier, we will have to close them and be prisoners in our own home once more. North St. Paul sucks! It is a nice evening. It would be nice to spend some time enjoying the outdoors before bed. I do not think we will get a chance.

6:30 PM: We can smell a trace of wood smoke in the house. We may have to close the windows soon.

6:35 PM: Faint wood smoke. It is getting stronger and now we must close the windows. North St. Paul is a horrible place to live! It is sunny at this time.

6:40 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. The shift in breeze brings more smoke to our property. The smoke comes and goes with the breeze.

7:25 PM: Faint wood smoke coming and going.

7:40 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Pretty smoky now. If the windows were left open the entire house would reek of wood smoke.

8:00 PM: Light wood smoke at this time.

8:30 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

9:50 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

11:15 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. No chance of opening the windows to cool the house tonight. The temperature must be down in the 60s by now. We hope for fresh air in the morning.

The air was fresh when I woke at 6 AM Saturday morning. It was raining at the time.

Thursday 08/11/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-12T18:20:00.001-05:00

It was a normal smoky evening in North St. Paul. A beautiful evening ruined by wood and grass smoke pollution. We could not leave the windows open to cool the house tonight.

5:00 PM: No smoke. 83 degrees, sunny, and nice for August.

5:45 PM: Faint wood smoke coming in the windows for two or three minutes then it was gone.

6:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

8:45 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. We had a feeling the air would be smoky tonight. That is the norm. What is unusual in North St. Paul is when the evening air isn't smoky. Fresh, unpolluted air is abnormal in this town. Close the windows! It is 79 degrees inside the house. The air temperature outside is cooling fast. It is cooler outside than it is inside but we cannot take advantage of it.

9:15 PM: Light wood and grass smoke. Wood burning and illegal yard waste burning. This is how North St. Paul is. There is no breeze. The smoke blankets the whole neighborhood.

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

11:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues. We have no chance to open the windows tonight before bed. We are stuck sleeping in a warm, stuffy house because of the city council of this horrible city.

You don't want to breathe smoky air in bed, do you? We don't.

Wednesday 08/10/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-11T18:55:00.003-05:00

There was no wood smoke this evening! It was another miracle! This was the second beautiful smoke-free evening in a row! It was sunny and 80 degrees at 6 PM with a comfortable humidity level below 60%. We got to enjoy an evening without wood smoke, but others were not so lucky. There was some pretty strong wood smoke over by the Silver Lake beach tonight at dusk. I've taken a cruise by the lake three evenings in a row and I found smoky air all three times. On Monday there was a smoky bonfire near 19th & Henry. Last night there was a little wood smoke near Poplar & Lake. Tonight it was pretty smoky near 19th & Margaret.

Tuesday 08/09/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-11T18:46:00.002-05:00

There was no wood smoke this evening. It was a miracle! A beautiful, sunny evening with no wood smoke! It was 72 degrees and sunny at 6 PM. A cooler than normal day for a change in a hot and humid summer. We spent some time outside this evening enjoying the cool, fresh air. You learn to savor the little fresh evening air you get in North St. Paul. We took a big risk tonight leaving the windows open when we went to bed. We very seldom do that because you never know when someone will start burning late. The temperature when I went to bed was 68 degrees. The house was nice and cool when we woke.

Monday 08/08/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-11T18:36:00.003-05:00

More wood smoke in North St. Paul, MN.

4:45 PM: No smoke at this time. But there is a icky tar smell in the air from the roofing company on the other side of Highway 36. 80 degrees, sunny, and humid. As of now there is rain in the forecast for tonight between 8 and 9 PM. It did not rain tonight as forecast.

6:10 PM: Light wood smoke at this time varying with the breeze. I suspected the frequent burner was burning again. It was not him. It was another house that does not usually burn wood but does burn yard waste from time to time. The windows have been closed.

6:30 PM: Light varying wood smoke continues.

7:00 PM: Light very stinky wood smoke and possibly something else being burned with the wood. It is very unpleasant smelling.

7:30 PM: Light varying stinky wood smoke continues.

8:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke lingers in the air.

9:00 PM: The wood smoke is gone. But some sort of strange food is being grilled. It smells like somebody is scorching their dinner on a grill.

10:00 PM: The air is not fresh but there is no noticeable smoke in it.

10:50 PM: The air is still not fresh. Windy at this time. Last check of the evening.

Sunday 08/07/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-07T16:34:00.002-05:00

It is a beautiful summer day. The windows are open all around the house. We expect tonight to be smoky. Almost every evening when it is nice somebody is burning. It would be a miracle for tonight to be an exception.

4:30 PM: No smoke. Sunny, 80 degrees and beautiful. The windows are open all over the house. When the windows are open, people will be burning. There has been no yard waste burning at all today. Something I find hard to believe. With the windows open and a gentle breeze blowing through the house, if somebody was burning yard waste someone would have noticed it.

4:55 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke coming and going with the wind. I found the frequent burner in the area burning again. Close the windows!

6:00 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke. The wind shifted or the frequent burner did not let his wood smolder for hours like he usually does.

8:15 PM: No smoke.

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

Saturday 08/06/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-07T16:22:00.002-05:00

It was a normal smoky Saturday night in North St. Paul. This city is a horrible place to live.

5:00 PM: Light wood smoke comes and goes. Went out and found the area frequent burner is burning at this time. He burns early, lets his wood smolder itself out, smoking up the air for hours, then the bonfires start. North St. Paul sucks.

6:00 PM: No smoke at this time. The smoke comes and goes. 85 degrees.

6:55 PM: A very faint wood smoke is in the air at this time.

7:40 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air.

8:20 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke at this time.

8:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky at this time. You can't be outside breathing this air!

9:05 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke.

9:25 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air at this time and varies with the breeze.

10:15 PM: No smoke. A little rain fell around this time.

There was no more wood smoke for the rest of the evening. The air was fresh when I woke Sunday morning.

Friday 08/05/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-07T16:18:00.002-05:00

If you are going to live in North St. Paul, MN, you are going to breathe smoky air most evenings. The wood and yard waste smoke returned tonight after an unusual absence earlier this week. We have been living like this for many years now. North St. Paul is a horrible place to live.

5:15 PM: No smoke. Mostly cloudy, 84 degrees, and humid.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

9:00 PM: Light grass smoke varying with the breeze. Somebody is illegally burning yard waste as the sky turns dark.

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. Now the wood burning starts. This is what you can expect if you live in this horrible city.

11:00 PM: The air is mostly clear at this time. Last check of the evening.

Thursday 08/04/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-07T16:15:00.002-05:00

It was another miracle. No wood or yard waste smoke on a beautiful summer evening. It was 84 degrees and sunny at 6 PM. It was a nice evening to be outside and not have to breathe smoky air. Every summer evening should be like this.

Wednesday 08/03/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-04T16:57:00.002-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening. It was a miracle to not have any smoke pollution on a beautiful evening like this. The temperature at 5 PM was 86 degrees and it was nice and sunny with a humidity level around 40%. I spent some time outside this evening enjoying the nice comfortable weather. It was wonderful to enjoy the outdoors without smoke pollution fouling the air. If fresh air was a normal thing around here like it was years ago, North St. Paul would be a good place to live. The wood smoke will be back. The people around here are not going to stop burning on their own.

Tuesday 08/02/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-03T08:40:00.002-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening. A miracle in North St. Paul. It was on the warm side, but people have burned when it was this warm before and will again. We had some rain in the late morning in the Twin Cities area. The temperature at 4:15 PM was 81 degrees, rising to 88 by 7:30 PM with sunny skies and less humidity than we have had in past days. It was a good evening for everyone who enjoys fresh air. Every evening should be free of smoke pollution like this.

Monday 08/01/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-02T16:11:00.001-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening due to weather conditions. We had some thunderstorms with heavy rain this afternoon in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. It was drizzling at 5:15 PM with a temperature of 74 degrees. Everything was too wet for burning.

Sunday 07/31/2011 Air Pollution

2011-08-01T08:34:00.003-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke today. We were the beneficiaries of unpolluted air because of heat and humidity. It was 92 degrees and humid at 5 PM. Not many people have bonfires or burn yard waste when it is hot and humid.

Saturday 07/30/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-31T14:03:00.003-05:00

Wood and yard waste smoke coming and going all afternoon and due to a thunderstorm no wood smoke tonight.

12:00 PM: Faint wood smoke and maybe yard waste smoke coming and going on the breeze at this time. It smells like wood and something else. I cannot say. The burner is not close to us. The wind brings the smoke this direction every so often.

12:30 PM: Very faint wood and what smells like grass smoke coming and going with the breeze.

2:15 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. The wind shifted and it was gone minutes later.

2:30 PM: Faint wood smoke and some other type of waste at this time. It comes and goes.

3:20 PM: Very faint grass smoke at this time. 89 degrees, sunny, and a little humid at this time.

4:00 PM: No smoke at this time.

5:00 PM: No smoke.

5:30 PM: Light wood smoke at this time.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

There was no more wood or yard waste smoke this evening. A storm was in the forecast for tonight. There was lightning in the sky after 9:30 PM and by 10:20 PM it was raining with heavy rain afterward.

Yard waste burner puts home up for sale

2011-07-30T08:12:00.005-05:00

There is little good news to be found in North St. Paul because this city is such a horrible place to live with its polluted air. But we may have a little less illegal yard waste smoke in the air in the near future. An illegal yard waste burner recently put their home up for sale. A man at this home burns leaves in the fall and a woman who lives there, Mrs. Illegal Yard Waste Burner I presume, likes to burn grass during the summer (we saw her burning grass in what little there is of a backyard a few weeks ago). There are a few women in the area who burn yard waste. There are two such lady yard waste burners living within a few hundred feet of city council member Jan Walczak's home. Ms. Walczak, the diligent and effective city council member that she is, does nothing about it. One of the lady yard waste burners is just a few houses down from her.

Friday 07/29/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-30T08:00:00.003-05:00

It was smoky as hell tonight. A normal evening in North St. Paul, MN, the most polluted city in the world.

4:00 PM: No smoke. 88 degrees, sunny, and it feels a little humid.

5:00 PM: No smoke.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

6:30 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke. How many hours will the smoky air last tonight? Will the air still be smoky come morning? I hate this city. It's a horrible place to live.

8:30 PM: Moderate wood and grass smoke. Someone is burning yard waste with their wood. People like to do that. They will start a bonfire and rake their grass clippings into it.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

10:15 PM: Moderate grass smoke. More yard waste burning. Thank you city of North St. Paul for making us live like this.

11:10 PM: A faint smoke of some type is in the air. It is wood and possibly something else.

The air was not fresh when I woke Saturday morning. Do you want to live in a city like this? Do you want to raise your children in a city that has smoky air every evening? Do you want your children breathing fertilizer, weed killer, and any other chemicals in burning grass? North St. Paul sucks! I've seen a few homes sell in the area in the past few months and the people who buy them will soon discover what a horrible city this is.

Thursday 07/28/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-29T10:29:00.003-05:00

12:30 AM: Faint wood smoke continues from the prior evening's burning.

There was no wood smoke tonight. At 6:30 PM it was 85 degrees and sunny and a little humid. As it was not very hot this evening, we will call this a miracle. After last night's heavy wood smoke pollution it was nice to have a night without smoky air. Without foreclosures in the area the past year, this summer would have been smokier than it has been. Recreational air polluters have a high rate of foreclosure it seems.

Wednesday 07/27/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-28T11:41:00.003-05:00

Heavy wood smoke this evening. Aren't we fortunate to live in a city that makes us breathe heavily polluted air? Wouldn't you like to live in North St. Paul and breathe smoky air almost every day? We've had smoky air four out of the past five evenings. If it isn't raining or too hot or cool, somebody is burning almost every evening.

4:25 PM: No smoke. 85 degrees, sunny, and very humid. The humidity makes it feel much warmer than it is.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

9:15 PM: No smoke.

10:15 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. It is extremely smoky now! This intense wood smoke pollution is inhumane! Nobody around us is burning. I don't know who is doing it. Stepping outside will leave me reeking of wood smoke requiring a shower. I'm not going out looking for it either.

When I woke after midnight there was a faint wood smoke in the air. The high temperature reached 89 degrees today with high humidity. I did not think anyone would be having a bonfire when it is this warm and humid. But this is North St. Paul. If someone isn't burning every evening when it isn't raining, that is out of the ordinary. North St. Paul sucks! We hate this damn city because of its heavily polluted air! You do not want to live in a city like this. North St. Paul is hell on earth!

Tuesday 07/26/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-28T11:36:00.004-05:00

There was wood smoke in the air again this evening.

4:45 PM: No smoke. 83 degrees with low humidity, sunny, and beautiful. This is a perfect summer day which will certainly be ruined by smoky air. You cannot have a nice day in this shitty city without someone ruining it by burning wood, grass, or whatever.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. If the windows were open they would have to be closed.

9:00 PM: No smoke.

10:00 PM: No smoke.

There was no more wood smoke this evening.

Monday 07/25/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-28T11:32:00.003-05:00

It was a miracle! There was no wood smoke this evening. Tough to believe, isn't it? The temperature was 88 degrees at 5:30 PM. It was a little warm this evening, but not too warm for bonfires I don't believe. As it usually works in the city of North St. Paul, when it is too warm or cool to have the windows open, nobody burns. But when the temperature is comfortable enough to open the windows, people are burning preventing you from leaving the windows open.

Sunday 07/24/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-28T11:25:00.003-05:00

It was a beautiful summer day spoiled by smoky air. What else is new?

I took a walk down by Silver Lake this morning sometime after 6 AM. I found wood smoke. Somebody's bonfire survived last night's rain storm or they started burning late after the rain had ended and left it to smolder itself out.

4:20 PM: Faint wood smoke is coming and going on the wind. 80 degrees, sunny, and it was beautiful until the smoke started.

4:55 PM: Light wood smoke varying with the wind. Must close the windows now and turn on the air conditioner. I went out and found the area frequent burner burning at this time.

5:45: Light wood smoke comes and goes with the breeze.

6:15 PM: No smoke at this time.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

7:45 PM: Light wood smoke at this time.

8:00 PM: A faint to light wood smoke at this time.

9:00 PM: No smoke.

10:55 PM: Light grass smoke. Someone is illegally burning yard waste. It could be the frequent burner from earlier. He likes to burn grass under cover of darkness. But he is not the only one who does that. I really don't know who is doing it.

11:30 PM: A very faint smokiness lingers in the air. No chance of opening the windows tonight.

North St. Paul sucks!

Saturday 07/23/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-24T05:16:00.004-05:00

An evening with a comfortable temperature means smoky air and that's what we got tonight. We had a thunderstorm around 9 AM that ended around 11 AM. It didn't wet things enough to prevent people from burning this evening.

5:45 PM: No smoke. 83 degrees and mostly cloudy. The weather forecast calls for the possibility of a thunderstorm tonight but nothing certain.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air. Somebody is burning wood somewhere. 75 degrees, cloudy, and nice except for the smoke pollution.

8:15 PM: A faint smoke of some type is in the air at this time.

8:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke varying with the breeze. Rain clouds are moving in and it is breezy at this time. This should be an evening for us to open the windows and enjoy the cool evening air. But we will be stuck inside with the windows closed all night, prisoners in our own home once again. North St. Paul sucks! Nobody around us is burning. I don't know who is. It could be someone blocks away with the wind bringing the smoke here. If our windows were open the house would smell throughout of burning wood. We do not want that in our home! This city is a horrible place to live!

9:10 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues. The news said the big storm missed us.

9:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues. The clouds are flashing with lightning at this time.

9:50 PM: Light wood smoke at this time.

9:53 PM: Drops of rain are starting to fall.

10:00 PM: Faint wood smoke continues in the air. A thunderstorm formed and is now moving over the Twin Cities. It is raining at this time.

10:35 PM: A very faint smoldering or burnt wood smoke is in the air. Light rain at this time.

11:00 PM: The thunderstorm and rain continues. Last check of the evening.

When I woke Sunday morning the air was cool and fresh. Finally, we can open the windows!

Friday 07/22/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-23T08:49:00.002-05:00

There was no wood smoke this night. It was a warm day but I do not think it was hot enough to discourage burning and there was no rain in the forecast for the evening. The humidity was high and that made it feel hotter than it was which could have discouraged people from having bonfires. The temperature was 88 degrees at 6:30 PM. The air was hazy from the humidity. The temperature dropped to 81 degrees at 10 PM. The TV weatherman said the humidity made it feel like 89 degrees. Whatever the reason may have been for the lack of wood smoke this evening, it was nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy fresh air on a Friday evening. Fridays are usually smoky as hell in this town. We were blessed tonight.

Thursday 07/21/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-21T20:52:00.008-05:00

The heat wave is over and the burning resumes. North St. Paul sucks! This city is a horrible place to live! If you are foolish enough to buy a home in this stupid city you will hate it, too! The asshole frequent burner in the area is burning again this evening after taking a break the past two weeks. Smoky air again! All the burning that would have normally happened the past several days but didn't because of high heat is going to happen this weekend. It is going to be smoky as hell in North St. Paul, MN!

The Silver Lake Splash event to raise money to staff the beach with lifeguards is this weekend at Silver Lake. Bring some wood with you and burn it in a grill.

4:20 PM: No smoke. 84 degrees and cloudy with low humidity. It is a beautiful day.

5:00 PM: No smoke.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:30 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air at this time.

8:40 PM: I discovered the pyromaniac frequent burner in the area is burning at this time. It isn't a bonfire, it isn't cooking, it's just burning for the sake of burning.

8:55 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. After this asshole is done burning the bonfires should start. The temperature is 79 degrees at this time. We should be able to open the windows tonight but can't because the air is smoky!

9:45 PM: A very faint trace of smoke lingers in the air.

10:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time.

11:00 PM: No smoke.

When I woke after midnight there was no smoke in the air. It did not get as smoky as I thought it would.

Wednesday 07/20/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-21T20:51:00.001-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke tonight because of high heat. People don't burn when it gets this hot. The temperature at 5 PM was 96 degrees.

Tuesday 07/19/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-21T20:49:00.001-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke tonight. It was too hot for recreational bonfire or yard waste burning. The temperature at 5 PM was 94 degrees and it was very humid.

Monday 07/18/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-18T16:53:00.003-05:00

Minnesota is in the grips of a heat wave. The temperature at 4:30 PM was 98 degrees in the Twin Cities with humidity a little on the high side. I do not expect any yard waste burning or bonfires tonight because of the heat.

There was no wood or yard waste smoke tonight.

Sunday 07/17/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-18T16:51:00.003-05:00

There was no wood smoke and no yard waste burning today. It was too hot for recreational burning. It was 91 degrees and cloudy with high humidity at 5 PM. There was a storm in the forecast but it didn't arrive until sometime in the early morning hours Monday.

Saturday 07/16/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-17T20:52:00.007-05:00

It was a hot and humid day. The air was hazy from the moisture in the air all day long. North St. Paul experienced some flash flooding today because of heavy rain in the morning. The rain started sometime prior to 5 AM and the downpour lasted a few hours. This could have been the longest duration of heavy rain I have seen in my lifetime. Water was pooling in our yard because of the heavy rain and yesterday's rain that left the ground saturated. I was concerned that the basement would get water in it. It didn't. The roads around here did not flood. There was flooding in the area of McKnight and Highway 36 and I read that 12th Ave. flooded as well. Kare 11 reported that the water on McKnight under the Highway 36 bridge was as high as the tops of the cars that stalled. I have some links to news stories you can view with pictures and video.

Here is a picture of the defunct Tap & Grill restaurant parking lot flooded down by the North St. Paul Target store and the Postal Credit Union bank. That's from this Kare 11 story. Here is a Kare 11 and a KSTP story with some video from a helicopter of the flooded area of McKnight Rd. & Highway 36.

There was no wood or yard waste smoke today because of high heat and humidity. When it gets really hot there are not many people having bonfires. I could see somebody burning off in the distance this afternoon around 5:15 PM. The burner was producing a huge cloud of smoke that hung in the sky at tree level. None of the smoke made it down this way. I do not know what was being burned. Grills don't produce that much smoke. The temperature at 5PM was 91 degrees and it was very muggy. It was a good night for fresh air if you like it hot and humid.

Friday 07/15/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-15T17:21:00.005-05:00

There was a thunderstorm and heavy rain in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area during the late morning to early afternoon hours. The weather forecast calls for the possibility of a thunderstorm this evening. We are hoping for rain all night long so we can enjoy some unpolluted air tonight.

4:30 PM: No smoke. 73 degrees, cloudy, and very humid. A few drops of rain are starting to fall at this time. If we have any luck the rain will continue all evening preventing anyone from burning in this stupid city.

5:25 PM: No smoke. Rain drizzle at this time. The drizzle did not last long.

8:00 PM: No smoke. The drizzle ended a while ago.

There was no wood or yard waste burning this evening. The ground was wet and that must have discouraged bonfires. There was a storm in the forecast for sometime tonight but it didn't start until prior to 5 AM Sunday morning.

Thursday 07/14/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-15T17:16:00.003-05:00

There was no wood smoke this evening. Not even a trace. A home not far from us was burning around 4:30 PM and was producing large amounts of smoke. I don't know what was being burned because none of the smoke came our direction and I was not in the mood to drive by it to find out. It was not grilling because a grill does not produce huge clouds of smoke like that. I feel sorry for the neighbors living around that home. Had the wind pattern been different, that smoke could have come toward us. It was 73 degrees and cloudy at 5:30 PM. There was no rain in the forecast for this evening. I guess you could say we got lucky tonight. The asshole frequent burner in the area has not burned for about a week now. Maybe they are out of town.

Wednesday 07/13/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-15T17:08:00.003-05:00

The air was very smoky after midnight this morning. It smelled like wood and possibly other types of waste were being burned. It did not smell like burning logs as much as it smelled like lumber for construction. I really cannot say what was being burned. I can say without any reservations that North St. Paul sucks!

1:30 AM: Moderate wood and possibly waste smoke at this time. The smoke is very heavy outside. Who the hell needs to burn at 1:30 AM Wednesday morning? Late night burning has not been as bad this year as it was in prior years. North St. Paul is a horrible place to live.

2:20 AM: Light wood and possibly waste smoke continues. I hate this city.

The air was fresh and clear when I got up later in the morning. Thank God.

5:20 PM: No smoke. 75 degrees and cloudy. There is rain in the forecast for after 11 PM tonight.

7:00 PM: No smoke, fresh air.

9:15 PM: Still no smoke yet.

9:40 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time. This is North St. Paul. Somebody is burning in this shitty city almost every evening.

11:10 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke lingers in the air. No chance of opening the windows tonight because we don't know how heavy it may get. Last night we had heavy wood smoke after midnight. Anyone around these parts who left their windows open last night woke to a house reeking of smoke.

The rain that was forecast for tonight never materialized. While we did not have much smoke, there was still smoke in the air as usual in this horrible city.

Tuesday 07/12/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-12T18:18:00.004-05:00

We were victims of some late night burning tonight. This is why we can never go to bed with the windows open in this horrible city.

5:00 PM: No smoke. Sunny and 78 degrees with nice breeze. A beautiful start to the evening. You could not ask for a nicer day than this. If we can only make it through the night without anyone burning anything......

6:15 PM: No smoke of any kind in the air. The air is wonderfully fresh. The windows are open with the breeze is flowing through the house.

8:10 PM: Still no smoke. 74 degrees.

10:35 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke at this time. North St. Paul sucks!

11:30 PM: Faint smoke varying with the breeze. No chance of leaving the windows open tonight.

The air was very smoky at 1:30 AM Wednesday morning. This is why we have come to hate North St. Paul.

Monday 07/11/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-12T18:15:00.002-05:00

5:02 PM: Faint wood smoke coming and going with the breeze. It did not last more than a few minutes. It's a little early for a bonfire. It could have been someone burning some wood to dispose of waste. There was no cooking odor associated with the wood smoke. 87 degrees and beautiful.

There was no more wood smoke tonight. The temperature at 9 or 10 PM was about 82 degrees which is not too hot for bonfire burning in this city. Other than a brief period of wood smoke earlier, this was a smoke-free evening. Close to a miracle in North St. Paul. We love that fresh, smoke-free air!

Sunday 07/10/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-12T18:10:00.003-05:00

5:20 PM: No smoke. Hot and muggy. 91 degrees. I did not notice any yard waste burning today when I stepped outside to check the air quality.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:45 PM: No smoke. 89 degrees, cloudy humid, with a storm moving in.

9:03 PM: Faint to light smoke that smells like burning tree branches much like we had had this past Friday. It did not last more than a few minutes. It was gone the next time I checked. The burning stopped or the wind shifted direction. It is common for people to burn yard waste as rain approaches.

9:15 PM: No smoke. Fresh air again.

9:45 PM: No smoke.

10:23 PM: No smoke. Storm sirens are sounding at this time. No rain yet.

10:50 PM: No smoke. Heavy rain at this time.

There was not much smoke pollution tonight. It was a little warm for recreational bonfire burning and the storm that was coming may have discouraged our local pyromaniacs from burning except for whoever did a little burning around 9 PM.

Saturday 07/09/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-10T15:46:00.002-05:00

It was a normal smoky night in North St. Paul, MN.

5:15 PM: No smoke. 87 degrees, humid, and cloudy. I did not notice any yard waste burning today when I opened the door to check.

7:04 PM: No smoke. Cloudy.

8:30 PM: No smoke. The air is fresh.

9:00 PM: A faint something is in the air at this time. I do not know what it is. I'm not even sure if it is smoke.

10:15 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. This is North St. Paul. If the air isn't smoky, it is unusual. 82 degrees.

10:35 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Pretty smoky. If the air conditioning was not on, there is no way we could open the windows. North St. Paul sucks!

11:30 PM: Faint wood smoke continues. Last check of the night.

The air was fresh when I woke Sunday morning.

Friday 07/08/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-09T14:34:00.003-05:00

There was yard waste burning tonight. It did not seem like there were any bonfires upwind.

4:30 PM: No smoke. 88 degrees.

6:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

9:00 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke. Somebody is illegally burning yard waste.

9:30 PM: Faint to light smoke from what smells like burning tree branches. This smoke is not being produced by logs in a bonfire. Not that it would be any better to have smoke pollution from chunks of tree. Unnecessary recreational air pollution is never good.

10:00 PM: Light to moderate smoke from what smells like burning tree branches continues. This is not normal bonfire wood that is being burned.

10:15 PM: Light to moderate smoke from earlier continues.

10:45 PM: Faint smoke of same type as earlier continues.

11:30 PM: There is a very faint smokiness in the air at this time. Last check of the evening.

The air was fresh when I woke Saturday morning.

Thursday 07/07/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-08T13:17:00.003-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke tonight. It was a miracle! It was not too hot for a bonfire and there was no rain to account for the absence of wood smoke. Once in a while we get lucky here in North St. Paul and get an evening of fresh air. This was one of those rare events. The temperature was 87 degrees at 4:45 PM with a mostly cloudy sky and a comfortable humidity of about 40%. The temperature at 10 PM was a nice 78 degrees, not too warm for a bonfire. But nobody upwind burned. It was nice to step outside and take a deep breath of fresh air! Smoke-free evenings like this should be the norm and not the exception.

Wednesday 07/06/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-06T17:39:00.004-05:00

It was a beautiful summer day. The evening is shaping up to be beautiful as well. Will there be wood smoke in the air tonight?

5:15 PM: No smoke. 86 degrees, sunny, just a beautiful day.

7:45 PM: No smoke. Loving that fresh air!

9:20 PM: Still no smoke yet.

10:00 PM: No smoke.

11:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air. Going to bed.

When I woke after midnight there was a sulfur smell in the air. From tar or something. It was a little stronger than what we usually get from the roofing company downtown. But there was no wood smoke tonight. Not a trace of wood or yard waste smoke. We experienced a miracle. It was not too hot for bonfire burning and there was no rain to account for the absence of wood smoke. Fresh air on a night with no rain and without high heat does not happen often in North St. Paul, MN.

Tuesday 07/06/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-06T17:30:00.002-05:00

We had a brief rain sprinkle this evening part of a passing thunderstorm. There was a little yard waste burning ahead of the rain. This happens often in North St. Paul. The burners see the rain approaching and hurry up and burn their yard waste as it approaches.

5:00 PM: No smoke. Sunny, 87 degrees with storm clouds heading into the Twin Cities.

5:27 PM: Faint grass and what smells like wood smoke blowing in on the breeze at this time. It did not last long, not more than a few minutes. It is now cloudy with rain clouds overhead. The TV weather forecast calls for rain soon. Some yard waste burner probably saw the forecast and ran outside to burn some yard waste before the rain comes.

5:35 PM: No smoke. Fresh air.

6:15 PM: No smoke. There is a little thunder at around this time. No rain yet.

6:50 PM: No smoke.

7:30 PM: No smoke. It rained briefly prior between the last air quality check and now. The grass and pavement are all wet.

7:45 PM: No smoke. The sun is shining again.

9:00 PM: No smoke.

10:00 PM: No smoke.

I woke before midnight and the air was fresh and clear. Other than the little yard waste burning earlier, there was no smoke in the air this night. It did not rain much but it was enough to make the grass wet and could have discouraged the burning that would have happened normally from occurring. We will take fresh air any way we can get it in this town!

Monday 07/04/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-06T17:23:00.002-05:00

The Fourth of July holiday. Not much wood smoke tonight. But the air was filled with gunpowder smoke from fireworks.

5:00 PM: No smoke. 88 degrees and sunny. A beautiful summer day.

6:45 PM: No wood smoke. Grill smoke at this time. Grill smoke is not something we complain about because it does not happen much and does not last long. There is more smoke from grass burning in this neighborhood than there is from grilling food.

8:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air.

9:50 PM: A very faint trace of some type of smoke is in the air. It is not strong enough to determine its type.

10:10 PM: A faint smoke of some type is in the air. I cannot determine what it is.

10:40 PM: Light gunpowder smoke from fireworks and possibly other type of smoke is in the air at this time. This is probably some of the heaviest gunpowder smoke I've ever experienced. There are people down the street shooting off illegal fireworks.

11:00 PM: Light gunpowder and what smells like wood smoke in the air at this time. This was the last check of the evening.

The air was fresh when I woke the next morning.

Sunday 07/03/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-03T15:39:00.004-05:00

1:15 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke pollution continues from Saturday night's burning. No chance of opening the windows any time soon.

The air was fresh when I got up in the morning. Thankfully! In recent weekends the smokiness continued well after daybreak.

There was no yard waste burning today. Hard to believe! It was a beautiful summer day. When we reached 9 PM without any smoke pollution in the air I was hopeful we would have a smoke-free night. But it was not to be. Not in this city where the air is smoky almost every night when it isn't raining or very hot.

4:00 PM: No smoke. No yard waste burning yet. 87 degrees in North St. Paul.

6:30 PM: No smoke yet.

7:10 PM: No smoke. Enjoying that fresh air!

8:20 PM: No smoke.

9:00 PM: No smoke. The air is still wonderfully fresh.

9:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Naturally. Every night the air is smoky. It has been this way for years in this town.

10:30 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

Midnight: Light wood smoke. Last check of the night.

The air was fresh and smoke-free when I woke. There will be more wood smoke tonight and maybe some yard waste burning today as well. Polluted air is something you can count on in North St. Paul.

Saturday 07/02/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-02T10:41:00.006-05:00

It is supposed to be a nice, sunny day with a high temperature around 84 degrees. With a lack of burning the prior two nights, tonight is going to be a smoky, polluted hell in North St. Paul, MN. Saturdays are usually smoky as hell in this town, so smoky you can't sit outside or open the windows because the air is too smoky to breathe. But this is the 4th of July weekend on top of it which will be even smokier than a normal Saturday. North St. Paul is a horrible place to live.

It was a picture perfect day and a beautiful evening that was ruined by smoky air as nice evenings usually are in this town. The burning started early this evening because of a frequent burner in the area and continued until well after midnight from bonfires. The smoke did not get as heavy as I thought it would. The air only got very smoky instead of the extremely smoky air I was expecting.

4:05 PM: Faint wood smoke coming and going with the breeze. The area frequent burner who burns four or five times a week is burning now. Fortunately for us most of the smoke is not coming our direction. After 45 minutes or so we no longer caught any of the smoke pollution for a while.

6:10 PM: No real wood smoke. Just smoke from a grill. Smoke from grilling food is not a nuisance like wood smoke is and we have never experienced smoke from a grill for 10 hours like we do all the time from bonfire burning. We get more smoke from burning yard waste in North St. Paul than we do from grilling! More people around here illegally burn yard waste than cook food on grills. It's a screwy town.

7:40 PM: Light wood and grass smoke at this time. Someone is burning yard waste with wood. Probably the frequent burner from earlier but I cannot be certain. He does that to mask his illegal yard waste burning as do others. People who do that start a bonfire then rake their grass clippings into it. Air polluters are sneaky around these parts.

8:15 PM: A very faint trace of smoke remains in the air.

9:00 PM: A very faint trace of smoke continues.

9:35 PM: The air is mostly clear at this time but is not fresh. There is some type of pollutant in it from burning.

Now the bonfires start as the sun goes down.

9:45 PM: Very faint wood smoke is in the air at this time.

10:00 PM: Faint wood smoke. The air is getting smokier.

10:40 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Smokier still.

11:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky at this time. As it usually is on Saturdays and like it often was during the week in years past. We are lucky two very smoky burners were foreclosed within the past year.

Midnight: Moderate wood smoke continues.

It is 74 degrees at midnight and it would be a nice night to shut off the air conditioning and open the windows to save a little money but we can't because the air is so damn smoky! North St. Paul sucks! The wood smoke pollution continued after midnight.

Friday 07/01/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-02T10:35:00.003-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening due to heat and a thunderstorm. It was 97 degrees at 6:00 PM with a storm moving in. By 6:45 or so there was some strong winds and a big drop in temperature down to 77 degrees. I was worried that someone would burn tonight after the temperature dropped. Fortunately, we got some rain that put a damper on the wood burning. Around 8:25 PM it started raining heavily with a thunderstorm and the Ramsey County storm sirens were sounding. The downpour lasted only a few minutes then we had drizzle until around 9:30PM then the rain stopped. I was disappointed that the rain had ended because I feared someone would start a bonfire. Luckily for us and everyone around us nobody did.

Thursday 06/30/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-02T10:33:00.001-05:00

There was no wood smoke this evening. A miracle? No. It was too hot to burn. The temperature at 5:00 PM was 94 degrees and it felt a bit humid. The pyromaniacs who live in North St. Paul do not burn much when it gets this hot. When it is too hot or cold to have the windows open, nobody burns. When the temperature is mild enough to open the windows, the air is too polluted to leave the windows open in this screwy town!

Wednesday 06/26/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-02T10:30:00.003-05:00

There was a little wood smoke in the air again this evening. Can you believe it?

5:05 PM: No smoke, 85 degrees, breezy.

6:30 PM: No smoke.

8:40 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air at this time.

10:00 PM: Faint wood smoke coming out of the south varying with the breeze.

No matter which way the wind blows, the air is almost always smoky in the evenings. North St. Paul sucks!

Tuesday 06/28/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-02T10:21:00.002-05:00

We got off pretty good this evening except for someone who did a little late night burning around midnight.

5:00 PM: No smoke. Sunny, 77 degrees, a beautiful day.

6:40 PM: Faint wood smoke for a few minutes then it was gone.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

I went out this evening and found two homes burning on Beam Ave. One was on the North St. Paul side and further down Beam there was a huge cloud of smoke in the middle of the street. I do not know if the burner was on the Maplewood or North St. Paul side. The smoke smelled like wood and garbage. But it could have been from some liquid leaked from a garbage truck as this is trash collection day in the neighborhood. There was also some faint wood smoke along the southern edge of Silver Lake around Charles St. Almost every time I go down by Silver Lake in the evenings there is wood smoke in the air.

9:00 PM: No smoke where we are.

10:00 PM: No smoke.

11:00 PM: No smoke.

Midnight: Someone burned a little something for a few minutes during this time. The windows were left open. Mistake. Every time we leave the windows open, which is not often because the air in the city of North St. Paul, MN, is so polluted, someone burns.

We are doing better this year because of two very smoky burners that were foreclosed. One was evicted June or July of last year and the other was evicted earlier this year I believe. The first one had one or two very smoky bonfires a week all summer long and the other burned from time to time. When the first home was foreclosed they left a pile of burnt wood in their firepit. Goodby and good riddance!

Monday 06/27/2011 Air Pollution

2011-07-02T10:18:00.002-05:00

4:45 PM: No smoke. Windy, partly cloudy, 77 degrees.

6:00 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. There is always someone burning in North St. Paul.

8:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

8:15 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

There was not much more smoke this evening.

Sunday 06/26/2011 Air Pollution

2011-06-26T18:04:00.004-05:00

1:55 PM: A very faint trace of grass smoke is in the air. I could smell it coming in the window as I was taking care of the dishes. It did not last long.

3:45 PM: Very faint grass smoke at this time from a distant illegal yard waste burner.

4:05 PM: No smoke at this time. Fresh air.

4:40 PM: Very faint grass smoke is in the air.

5:15 PM: Fresh air for the time being.

5:30 PM: Faint grass smoke. Is it the same yard waste burner as earlier or a new one? Would somebody spend all afternoon illegally burning grass in small amounts or would they get all the burning done at once? In this screwy city you never can tell.

6:05 PM: A very faint wood or grass smoke is in the air at this time. 79 degrees, cloudy. It looks like it could rain but the rain is not forecast to come until later. The grass smoke comes and goes. I can smell it coming through the windows into the house. It isn't enough to close the windows as long as we get it in small amounts.

There is a chance of rain and thunderstorms late in the evening. It does not look like it will rain early enough to prevent the normal nightly burning in North Saint Paul, Minnesota. It looks like we will have smoky air again tonight.

7:00 PM: I cannot read my note for this time.

8:00 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air at this time.

9:15 PM: No smoke.

9:35 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. Wouldn't you know it.

11:00 PM: The air is not fresh at this time but I cannot detect what is in it.

Saturday 06/25/2011 Air Pollution

2011-06-25T12:27:00.004-05:00

Last evening's burning continued well into the morning hours. We may have a few hours of fresh air until the yard waste burning starts then the wood smoke nightmare starts all over again. Tonight will be a smoky hell as Saturdays always are.

1:00 AM: Light to moderate smoldering wood smoke continues. There is no breeze to push the smoke away. It blankets the area. No chance to open the windows yet.

3:15 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues. Still can't open the windows and get some air in the house.

5:00 AM: A faint to light smoldering smokiness lingers in the air. The windows cannot be opened yet.

7:00 AM: The air is mostly clear. Finally we can open the windows! NORTH SAINT PAUL SUCKS! HORRIBLE PLACE TO LIVE!

As usual, it was a smoky night in North St. Paul. It wasn't as smoky as last night. But it was too smoky to sit outside or open the windows. Prisoners in our own home once again. I did not notice any yard waste burning today. I was in and out much of the afternoon and may have missed it.

6:00 PM: No smoke yet. 68 degrees, cloudy.

7:00 PM: A faint wood smoke was in the air for a few minutes. The breeze must have shifted.

8:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke at this time. It's pretty smoky outside.

8:40 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air now.

9:00 PM: Faint wood smoke.

9:40 PM: Light wood smoke.

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke. I walked down the street upwind toward the source of the smoke. Nobody on our block is burning. I don't know where it is coming from. It could be another block away or even farther than that.

10:45 PM: Light wood smoke.

11:20 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

Midnight: The air is mostly clear but a trace of smoke lingers. The air is not fresh at this time. We cannot risk opening the windows tonight. Somebody could start a late bonfire or the wind may shift filling the house with smoky air.

There was no more smoke tonight. I woke a few times before sunrise and the air was mostly clear each time. The air was clear when we woke except for a trace of a burnt wood odor. It was barely noticeable, not enough to prevent the windows from being opened to let in the cool morning air.

Friday 06/24/2011 Air Pollution

2011-06-24T18:06:00.005-05:00

It is a nice day in North St. Paul. Everyone has their air conditioners off and their windows open. That means tonight is going to be a brutal, smoky hell! As it always is. This is normal in North St. Paul, MN. All the bonfires and yard waste burning that would have normally taken place Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will happen tonight and tomorrow. We will have five days of wood and yard waste smoke pollution compressed into two.

5:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air for the time being. Completely cloudy. 76 degrees with the relative humidity level at a comfortable 35%. The weather forecast calls for the possibility of a passing sprinkle this evening in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area but no rain in any amount to discourage bonfire smoke pollution.

5:20 PM: Light wood smoke varying with the breeze. The burning has already started. There is no cooking odor with the wood smoke. It is just wood being burned. I believe I know who is doing it but I am not driving around the block to be certain. Close the windows! North St. Paul sucks!

5:40 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke at this time.

5:50 PM: No smoke at this time. The wind shifted.

6:15 PM: Light smoke at this time. The burner will leave the wood to smolder itself out as he always does. It is going to be smoky for hours. It will probably be three or more hours until the wood burns itself out. It will be getting dark by that time then the bonfires start and it will be even smokier than it is now. My sinuses are starting to get irritated from the smoke already.

Do you want to live in a city like this? Maybe by morning we will be able to open the windows. The past two weekends have featured smoldering wood smoke in the morning. This is how you are going to live, too, if you make the mistake of buying a house in North St. Paul. Read the blog and see how you will live.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

7:50 PM: A very faint wood smoke is in the air.

8:05 PM: Faint wood smoke.

9:05 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky now. It will only get worse as darkness falls.

10:45 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues.

Midnight: Moderate wood smoke continues.

The air was smoky past 5 AM Saturday morning. We were not able to open the windows until 7 AM. The wood smoke pollution was not as heavy as it has been the past few weekends. We only endured very smoky air instead of the extremely smoky air I expected which is more normal on the weekends. But the smoke lasted an awful long time. Which condition is better? Extremely smoky air for a few hours or very smoky air for 8 hours?

If you make the mistake of buying a house in North St. Paul, MN, this is how you are going to live. Wood smoke is a problem throughout most of the city and not limited to our neighborhood. Burners have all the rights in this town. They can legally burn from 4 PM to 11 PM every night of the week and you can do nothing about it. And you can see from this blog that the burning continues well into the morning hours.

Thursday 06/23/2011 Air Pollution

2011-06-24T18:00:00.004-05:00

We endured a little smoke for a few minutes this evening. It was not as bad as I thought it would be with the past two nights too rainy to burn. Tonight was a little cool for bonfires.

5:00 PM: No smoke. 62 degrees, cloudy.

6:00 PM: Light wood and possibly yard waste smoke shortly before and after this time. It did not last very long, not more than a few minutes. We got a bit of smoke intermittently as the breeze blew our direction then shifted. I am not sure where it was coming from. It seemed to be coming out of the east from the next block of homes. The breeze was shifting directions too much to tell.

There was no more wood or yard waste smoke this evening. Thankfully. It was a little cool for bonfires. There are not too many bonfires during the week when temperatures are this cool. You will usually find a few on the weekends with drunks having loud parties.

Wednesday 06/22/2011 Air Pollution

2011-06-22T18:07:00.004-05:00

6:00 PM: No wood or yard waste smoke yet. The rain is forecast to start any time now. We are hoping for plenty of rain tonight to prevent the wood burners from polluting our air. It is supposed to rain until midnight. If the forecast holds, we will enjoy another night of fresh, unpolluted air. Hoping for rain.

There was no wood or yard waste smoke pollution this night. The rain started around 7 PM. It was still raining after 3 AM, a little drizzle at that time. We did something we almost are never able to do in this town. We slept with the windows open. It was nice!

Tuesday 06/21/2011 Air Pollution

2011-06-22T17:59:00.003-05:00

There was no wood or yard waste smoke this evening because of heavy rain. It was raining heavily after 4 PM in North St. Paul. I was worried that someone would burn some yard waste during a break in the rain between 4:30 and 8:30 PM but nobody did. It is common for people to burn during breaks in the rain or right before the rain starts. There was a tornado watch for the Twin Cities. By 8:30 PM it was raining again with a thunderstorm and heavy rain by 9 PM. It was a great evening for fresh air. North St. Paul is a much nicer place to live when the air isn't smoky.

Star Tribune article about bonfire smoke

2011-06-20T23:44:00.006-05:00

Here is a link to an article on the Star Tribune website about wood smoke from bonfires by Carol Dines. You may wish to read the comments section to witness the bully mentality of wood burners. There is a comment poster called holtjan who claims he or she lives in the city down in the Tower Park neighborhood. holtjan, in my opinion, possesses one of the most abrasive, mean personalities I have ever encountered online. This mean, bully personality trait is common among the small minority of wood burners amongst us polluting our precious air. Mean and nasty. Being an asshole must be a prerequisite to become an air polluting bonfire burner. It has to be because the rest of us are concerned about how our actions affect those around us.

One person's back-yard burn is others' bane

Link to the comments section

My posts are under the nickname of nspresident.

To holtjan: I hope you visit my blog again and I hope you mention it to your neighbors. If you search Google for any combination of the name of the city of North St. Paul you will find that this blog has a placement on the front page of the search results. I've had something approaching 20,000 visitors in the past two years or so to this blog, and that's with this blog not being updated during the winter months. I would like more locals to visit. So please, mention this blog to your neighbors, holtjan.

The Star Tribune comment moderators did not post a comment I made containing some text and a link to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's hazards of wood smoke page. So I will post my unpublished comment here along with another comment I made just in case it is not published.

Submitted at 10:37 PM by nspresident and not published:

Asthma attacks, heart problems, and other medical issues can be triggered by wood smoke. Don't believe me? Here's a link from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. "Wood smoke contains a hazardous mixture of chemical substances such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dioxin, and inhalable particulate matter (PM). Some of the VOCs are irritating, toxic, and/or cancer causing. One of the biggest human health threats from smoke, indoors or outdoors, comes from PM. Wood smoke PM is composed of wood tars, gases, soot, and ashes. Most of the particulate matter in wood smoke is smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter. These are called “fine particles” or PM2.5. Their small size allows them to go deep into the lungs. Some of the toxic chemicals from wood smoke combine with the fine particles and are also carried deeper into the lungs. Fine particles can trigger respiratory problems such as asthma attacks and even heart problems. Fine particles are considered especially dangerous for young children with developing lungs, the elderly, and people of all ages who have asthma, bronchitis, other respiratory problems, and cardiovascular disease." http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/air/air-quality-and-pollutants/general-air-quality/wood-smoke/health-effects-of-wood-smoke.html?menuid=&redirect=1

My next comment currently awaiting moderation submitted at 11:37 PM:

@holtjan: To say you have an abrasive personality would be an understatement. You are insulting with every breath. You are typical of the BULLY mentality of wood burners who enjoy being a nuisance to hundreds of people. Why such a bad attitude? I have written about the Tower Park neighborhood in the past years and yes, it can be quite smoky over there, but no match for where we live (put "tower" in the search box at the top of the blog to find posts about that area). You like the smoke, do you? I doubt that very much. Because if you do like it, perhaps I could buy your neighbors an entire summer's supply of wood to burn? Would you like that? Tell your neighbors to email me and ask for some FREE firewood and maybe I'll buy them some to make sure you have smoky air ALL summer long. Also, holtjan, there was NO bonfire burning years ago. None. There was no bonfire burning in 1997, and there probably was none in 1990 (I've been told there was none as far back as the 1970s). Not once did we have to close the windows because of smoky air in the late 1990s. Not once. And tell your neighbors about my blog. May your nights be filled with wood smoke so heavy it burns your sinuses and irritates your eyes. Thank you and have a nice night.

holtjan, if you wish to discuss this further with me, you can email me at the address found on this page. I will be happy to post your emails to me on this blog so we can have a discussion on the issue should you be willing to leave your insulting, bully attitude behind. Once more, please tell your neighbors down in Tower Park about this blog. Not all of them love smoky air as much as you do I will wager.

I have been maintaining this blog for over three years now. This is not something I do because I enjoy it. It's something I do so others can see how we are forced to live in this hell called North St. Paul. I did not think this wood smoke problem would last as long as it has. Everything on this blog is what we experience in North St. Paul, MN. Your experience may vary, and it very well may be much worse.

Monday 06/20/2011 Air Pollution

2011-06-20T18:12:00.004-05:00

It could be a beautiful evening if the air remains smoke-free. But living in North St. Paul, MN, the most polluted city in the world, that is not likely.

6:00 PM: No wood or yard waste smoke yet. Enjoying that fresh air! Going to sit outside for a while until the wood smoke starts. And it will. It's always smoky in North St. Paul. 76 degrees, cloudy. Rain is in the forecast for later this evening.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

7:50 PM: A very faint trace of some type of smoke is in the air.

8:05 PM: Very faint grass smoke. There is someone illegally burning grass in the distance. It's not very strong but it is enough to smell it inside the house.

8:25 PM: Very faint grass smoke continues.

9:00 PM: No smoke.

10:10 PM: No smoke. Fresh air. No rain yet.

Midnight: No wood smoke. Fresh air! No rain yet.

I was surprised that all we had for smoky air tonight was a tiny bit of grass smoke around the 8 PM hour. What possible reason could there be for the absence of wood smoke tonight? Is it because it was forecast to rain this evening? No. There was rain in the forecast for last Friday evening and it did not discourage the burning. Could it be the wind pattern? The wind is out of the east and north this evening, different from the usual west to east pattern. But we get hit with wood smoke no matter which way the wind blows. Maybe we just got lucky. That happens once every blue moon in North St. Paul.

You have to savor every little bit of fresh air you get in this polluted nightmare of a city.

Sunday 06/19/2011 Air Pollution

2011-06-20T18:06:00.002-05:00

1:00 PM: No smoke. I can see smoke rising in the distance from the property of a frequent burner. But we could not smell it on our property. Burning this early, I guess he is burning yard waste.

4:30 PM: No smoke. The frequent burner is burning again. We cannot smell it down here. The wind is not coming our direction, thankfully. Sunny, 75 degrees.

5:30 PM: Still no smoke.

6:10 PM: A faint smoke of some type is in the air. It is not wood, it is not grass, it is not food being grilled. I do not know what it is. The windows have been closed.

6:40 PM: A very faint trace of some type of smoke is still in the air.

7:15 PM: A faint smoke of unknown type still is in the air. It did not last long beyond this.

There was no more smoke in the air for the rest of the night.