Wednesday 09/09/2009 Air Pollution

5:15 PM: No wood smoke. Cloudy, 79 degrees, weather forecasts show a possibility for rain. It looks like it could rain.

6:35 PM: No wood smoke. I noticed a few tiny drops of rain on the trash container earlier. It isn't enough to stop anyone from burning wood this evening.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke yet.

9:30 PM: No wood smoke. The sky is clear at this time.

11:40 PM: No wood smoke yet. Can we make it another 20 minutes without wood smoke? Could this be the first day in weeks without polluted air? Will anybody start burning after midnight? The windows are open. I'll notice if someone starts late night burning, which is not that uncommon. 70 degrees at this time. Nice. Fresh air is so rare in this town.

Midnight: No wood smoke, not even a trace of anything in the air. Fresh air! We made it!

This is the first evening without wood smoke in the past 20 days. The last evening without wood smoke was August 20th. It rained heavily after 6 PM with rain on and off all evening. This is how the North St. Paul city council tortures us. They force us to breathe smoky, polluted air every day against our will.