3:22 PM: Faint to light odor of burning leaves. Somebody is burning yard waste to the east of us. They are not close by. The smoke would be stronger if they were closer. They could be several blocks away. It did not last for more than a few minutes after I noticed the odor coming in the windows. I did not notice any burning yard waste yesterday when I spent several hours outside enjoying what could be our final stretch of nice weather until next spring. Our air conditioner was on Saturday, it isn't today.
5:00 PM: Very faint trace of some type of smoke. I can't tell what it is. It doesn't smell like a grill and does not smell like wood or yard waste.
7:05 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke coming out of the east. The wind is blowing west behind the houses and seems to be blowing north a block from here. I expected a smoky hell of an evening so I went out looking for the source of the wood smoke. I could not find it. There was a smokiness of some kind up around Shoshone and Indian Way on Chippewa. 76 degrees and partly cloudy at this time. A nice early fall evening.
8:30 PM: No wood smoke at all where we are.
9:30 PM: No wood smoke.
10:00 PM: No wood smoke.
10:30 PM: No wood smoke. This was the final check of the evening. People often start burning late in this town. I don't know if it was smoky after this time because the windows were closed.
This was a very light evening for wood smoke. It is usually much smokier than this on Sundays when the weather is nice. We officially enter fall tomorrow. Burning may be tapering off for the season, but it won't end completely until it is cold enough for fireplaces to be used. We endure smoke all year round in North St. Paul. The first half of last winter was very smoky. The second half was not. There was more wood smoke this summer than the second half of last winter. This could be the only town where the air is smokier in the summer than in the winter.