I never have a problem finding wood smoke in this city when it isn't raining. Recreational burning has gotten way out of hand. Somebody is always burning in this city.
10:00 PM: No wood smoke where we are yet this evening. It isn't fresh air, but we'll take it over the smoky air we had last night at this time. 72 degrees now. 78 degrees at 6 PM. This was a beautiful smoke-free summer evening. Some residents of this city are not so lucky.
Around 8:45 PM I went for a little cruise around the northern half of the city. I did not do a thorough check of every street looking for wood smoke. I went up and down all the streets south of the lake and down to Tower Park. I found no wood smoke in these areas. This could be the first time I have not encountered wood smoke over by Tower Park on a nice evening this year.
I headed down 19th by another frequent burner's house on the corner of 19th & 1st. He wasn't burning. I headed up Chippewa and found my first area of wood smoke at Navajo & Chippewa. It was faintly smoky at Chippewa & Shawnee. The wood smoke was strong at Navajo & Chippewa. There is a guy on the northwest corner of that intersection who burned a lot last year. I haven't seen him burn at all this year, but I haven't been in that area much. It was very smoky right in front of his house. I remember last year on a beautiful summer evening when he and his next door neighbor to the west both had bonfires in their front yards going at the same time. Double the pollution. They both had Jan Walczak campaign signs in their yards last Fall.
I headed down Navajo to McKnight. The wood smoke was weakening all the way down. I headed south to Shawnee. Nothing at that street and McKnight. I could smell faint wood smoke at Apache & Shawnee. I headed down Apache then back up Delaware. Nothing until I got back to Shawnee. Light wood smoke at Delaware & Shawnee.
I then headed up into Maplewood. Smoky on Standridge. I saw a bonfire in the backyard of a house. Maplewood was supposed to be looking at banning recreational burning. The city council must have chickened out. Shame on them.
I headed back into North St. Paul. I encountered a huge cloud of wood smoke at the corner of Shawnee & 2nd. It was very smoky at that intersection. The cloud of wood smoke was heaviest in the front yard of the home on the northwest corner. Could this be the source of the wood smoke at Navajo & Chippewa? There isn't much of a breeze this evening. I could not locate the burner. 72 degrees is too warm for a fireplace. It had to be a recreational fire. I spent no more than 10 - 15 seconds in that cloud and my clothes reeked of wood smoke! When I got back home I had to shower and put my clothes in a plastic bag because they smelled so badly of wood smoke. I have sympathy for the poor souls who live near that intersection. I hope they didn't have their windows open. If my clothes reeked of wood smoke after only a few seconds, imagine what their houses must smell like inside.
If you happen to be one of the many people who don't like breathing wood smoke all the time, you can pin the blame on the city council. They are the reason you have to breathe smoky air. They have refused to do anything about this problem.
10:30 PM: Still no wood smoke. We may get lucky tonight. I have my fingers crossed.
Midnight: Still no wood smoke. We did get lucky. We had a beautiful evening without wood smoke!