Monday 04/13/2009 Burning

6:30 PM: Very smoky outside at this time. I had the window open to vent kitchen heat. Had to close it because the air outside was so smoky. It was very smoky for about half-an-hour after which the smokiness was gone.

Maplewood Burning

Northern Maplewood was very smoky this evening. I was at the corner of Lydia & McKnight at about 8:15 PM this evening. The air was very smoky in this area. Ever the sleuth, I wanted to track down the source of the burning. I proceeded up Lydia toward Helen/Bellaire. The smokiness got more intense the closer I got to the intersection. The smoke in this area was so strong my sinuses were burning and my nose was watering. It was terrible. I had to blow my nose at the corner. I was not able to pinpoint the precise location of the burning, but it was in the vicinity of Lydia & Helen/Bellaire. My assumption is that someone had a fireplace going when it was 56 degrees outside.

I wanted to relate this example to you readers to illustrate how far smoke can travel. The distance from the source of the smoke (Lydia & Helen/Bellaire) to where I first detected it (Lydia & McKnight) is exactly 1/2 mile. The smoke was a nuisance that entire 1/2 mile distance and probably further than that. Smoke doesn't stay confined to the property of the burner. It can travel a great distance and inconvenience everyone downwind, which could be hundreds of people.

The wind pattern was east to west this evening.

Back to North St. Paul

At about 8:20 PM, I saw a huge plume of smoke rising from the back yard of a house near the corner of Poplar Ave. & Lake Blvd. It was the third house south of the intersection on the west side of the street. A giant cloud of smoke rose above the house. I could not smell the smoke from the street since the wind pattern was east to west. Sometimes grills can create large amounts of smoke for small periods of time. I don't think that was the case here. Directly behind the house on Helen St. the air was heavy with wood smoke. So either that person was burning wood or the neighbor behind him had a fireplace going. My suspicion is that the person on Lake Blvd. had a recreational fire.

To give you another idea of how far smoke can travel, I could smell wood smoke at the intersection of Chippewa & Shoshone. That's nearly 1/2 a mile away and due west of the house on Lake St. with the smoky back yard.

I thought I would try something. When I notice assholes burning and polluting the precious air we all must breathe this year, I am going to put them on a map.

That's the first one I've found for 2009. Each year for the past five years or so has gotten smokier than the year that preceded it. Last year was a miserable, smoky hell. This year will probably be worse.

I started documenting burning this year on 04/09/2009. In the five days since, I've smelled wood or grass smoke all five days. That's a 100% average early in the burning season. This does not bode well for the rest of the year.

Do you see this, Ms. Walczak?