2:30 AM: Light wood smoke. Got up again to use the bathroom. Opened the back door to check the air quality. Still smoky outside. Not as smoky as before, but smoky enough to where you could not open your windows. It is very common for people having bonfires to improperly extinguish their fires leaving them smoldering all night long. The result is that the entire neighborhood reeks of wood smoke because of that one burner. That may be why the air is smoky this late.
5:00 AM: Air is clear and fresh now. Take a deep breath and savor it.
I strongly anticipate this evening and the entire weekend to be very smoky. With cool temperatures and rain earlier in the week combined with kids being out of school, it is a recipe for horrendous wood smoke pollution in the city of North St. Paul, MN.
4:25 PM: Very smoky. Somebody burning yard waste. Humongous cloud of smoke drifting through yards down a way. The smoke is not coming directly at us. The entire neighborhood reeks of burning yard waste. This could be the biggest cloud of smoke I've seen yet in North St. Paul, and I've seen some big ones.
Are there any fines for illegally burning yard waste in this city? Not from what I have seen. No penalty means no compliance with the law.
6:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke. Household nearby is burning wood--AGAIN! I did not notice them burning wood at all last year. New homeowners? Renters? They burn wood 3 or 4 times a week. They stink up the entire neighborhood each time they do it--AND WE ALL HAVE TO SUFFER! I can see the plume of smoke rising from their backyard down a way.
7:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Those people are still burning.
8:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke depending on the breeze. Those people have been burning for 2 hours now.
9:00 PM: Faint wood smoke. They are still burning. 3 hours now, no end in sight.
10:00 PM: No wood smoke worth mentioning at this time. We are going to bed now.
10:45 PM: Moderate wood smoke. Out of bed. Checked air. Good and smoky outside. The burning still has not stopped. This is almost 5 hours of foul, polluted air this evening.
I woke up at 3:30 AM. Good and smoky outside. If those people didn't stop burning or extinguish their fire, someone else started burning. If that smoke was from that same household burning at 6 PM, that would make 9-1/2 hours of smoky, polluted air from just that one household.
Yet the city leaders protect the right of that one household to pollute the air we all must breathe. One household burns and the air is polluted all night long.
Isn't this a horrible way to live?