It was a beautiful evening. Warm and pleasant. As always in the city of North St. Paul, MN, when the weather is nice the air is so heavy with wood smoke pollution you cannot stand to breathe it. I knew it would be smoky tonight because it always is in North St. Paul when the weather is nice. Always. You can bet money on it and win every time.
It would have been a nice evening to sit outside and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather more characteristic of late May than March. But you couldn't. The air was so polluted with wood and yard waste smoke breathing it irritated your sinuses. Stepping outside for a minute would leave your clothes reeking of smoke as if you spent hours in a smoky bar. It was another North St. Paul nightmare from hell.
3:10 PM: Very faint to faint smoke that smells odd. It smells like burning grass and burning meat or something. I'm not sure what it is. The smoke comes and goes blowing in the windows. It stinks. 76 degrees and sunny at this time.
3:35 PM: The very faint stinky smoke from earlier comes and goes.
4:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air. But it won't last long.
5:00 PM: No smoke. The calm before the wood smoke pollution storm. 77 degrees and sunny.
6:50 PM: No smoke. The windows are open. The breeze is blowing through the house. Enjoying that last bit of fresh air.
7:15 PM: The air is not fresh. Something is in it. Somebody somewhere is burning. The bonfires have started. Close the windows! We know what is coming. It's like this every day in this horrible polluted hell of a city.
7:30 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke in the air. The pollution is getting stronger.
7:37 PM: Faint wood smoke in the air. The smoke is getting stronger.
8:00 PM: Moderate to strong wood and what smells like grass smoke. It is extremely smoky at this time. This air pollution is inhumane. I can't believe any human being would subject another human being to the torture of heavy air pollution like this as our city council has been doing for years. Living in North St. Paul is like living in a bad dream that you relive every evening.
8:55 PM: Moderate to strong wood and grass smoke continues. Extremely heavy air pollution continues. You cannot stand to breathe this air. If you stepped outside for one minute your clothes would reek of smoke when you came back in.
9:50 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. The intensity of the air pollution is decreasing. 66 degrees at this time.
10:15 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.
10:40 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time. This was the last check of the evening.
I did not stay up late and slept through until morning. I wasn't able to check if the smoke got heavier late at night as it often does.
This is life in North St. Paul. This is how we have lived for many years now. I've seen that homes have been selling the past couple of months. You people who are moving into the city are in for a rude surprise when you see how much it costs you for electricity this summer when you have to leave your air conditioner on all night because the air is so smoky you can't open your windows.
North St. Paul was a great place to live until the early 2000s. It's been getting worse and worse every year since.