Right now (Friday evening at 9 PM) the air is filled with smoke from burning yard waste. I did not think that grass burning would start so soon with small patches of snow still on the ground. I saw people raking their yards today. I did not think anyone would be burning it. Living in this horrible nightmare city for as long as I have, I should have known better.
In the city of North St. Paul, MN, people are burning every night. Last night the air was heavy with smoke from wood and burning paper. When the breeze came from the east, it contained wood smoke. When the breeze shifted out of the west, it smelled of burning paper. I think someone to the west was burning garbage or newspapers with the smoke as heavy and lasting as long as it did. People love to burn in this town and City Hall encourages it. This is one screwed up polluted city.
This blog will be updated with the winter smoke log soon. Winter is the least smoky season in North Saint Paul. Winter offers us the best air quality. People would assume that winter is the most smoky season. Not in North St. Paul.
Most homes with fireplaces do not use them. The air is almost never smoky in the mornings during the winter. Wood smoke is concentrated in the evenings. People do not use fireplaces for home heating in this town. Homes need to be heated in the morning, but fireplaces are never used for heating them. Fireplaces are another form of recreational air pollution.
While I stopped updating the blog in early December, I did keep notes of the smoke in this city every morning and evening all winter long. I will spend a few hours getting this blog updated in the coming days.
If the yard waste burning is starting this early, it is going to be another smoky hell of a spring, summer, and fall in North St. Paul, MN. Just like every other year.
Do you want to live in a polluted city like this?