It's another smoky evening as usual in North St. Paul. The weather is nice for this time of year. There is yard waste to be burned. People have to get drunk and sit around smoky bonfires because they can't find anything else to do.
2:10 PM: Light grass smoke. Home at this time to notice someone is burning grass somewhere. I have wondered how much yard waste burning happens during the day when people are at work. This smoke lasted for less than half an hour.
4:42 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke. There is an illegal yard waste burner who must not be too far away for the smoke to be this heavy. Close the windows! North St. Paul sucks. 71 degrees and it would be a nice afternoon to have the windows open but we can't!
5:15 PM: Light to moderate grass and what may be wood being burned with it. It is common for yard waste burners to start a bonfire and rake their grass clippings into it. Or the yard waste burner could be disposing of tree branches. It's too smoky to sit outside and too smoky to open the windows. North St. Paul is a horrible place to live.
5:40 PM: Light to moderate paper or some other type of smoke. Why not burn some other types of waste while you are at it? I don't know who is doing the burning. Nobody around us is doing it. It could be someone on the next block or down further than that.
6:30 PM: No smoke. The calm before the storm.
7:00 PM: No smoke. There will be as there always is. If it is nice enough to have the windows open and it isn't raining, people are burning. Wood, grass, paper, if it is combustible, people burn it in North St. Paul.
7:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It's smoky outside. Too smoky to sit outside. Too smoky to open the windows. We are prisoners in our own homes once again.
8:00 PM:Moderate wood smoke. The wood smoke pollution has gotten heavier. It is very smoky outside. Not as smoky as it was last Friday. Last Friday it was extremely smoky. This Friday is only very smoky. In North St. Paul, very smoky air is an improvement over how bad it can get.
8:55 PM: No smoke. The breeze must have shifted. The burning isn't ending this early on Friday.
9:30 PM: Light wood smoke.
10:10 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke.
10:40 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues.
Midnight: Light wood smoke. There is no chance of opening the windows before bed.
The wood smoke continued well into the morning hours. Burning is supposed to cease at 11 PM but it rarely does in this shitty polluted hell of a city.