Smoke in the air

[MinnesotaEric]

I've got to admit that I'm getting tired of an entire summer of smoke in the air. I like to take my pontoon out at night, stick the sea legs into a sandbar, lean a seat back and star gaze. Maybe bring a camera and time-lapse—but not this summer. I like to wake up and smell the fresh air, the smell of conifers—but not this summer. I smell smoke. I like to take my RZR to look at vistas from high places, but the surrounding forest looks like a manufacturing city with a haze that covers everything from thousands of feet up all the way down. Even the sunsets are mysterious with red sunsets long before the sun creeps down over the horizon.

Earlier today for the second time this summer, I could not see across my lake because of the smoke from Canadian wildfires.

This afternoon I plan to pop into my garage and weld up a broken hydraulic ram yoke and I don't know what is worse: keeping the garage doors closed so as to not let the Canadian forest fire smoke in, or throwing the doors open so as to not breath welding fumes.

A cloudless, sunny afternoon at my place right now.

 

[Rebeldad1]

welcome to the rest of us...

We live in a valley surrounded by mountains. The mountains separate us from eastern Washington. Lots of major forrest fires going on and when the wind blows our way the smoke comes in and hangs in the valley.

Also there has been a LOT of forest clearing around here to harvest logs. There are more slash piles from this than I can ever remember. Come fall they are all going to be lit up and smoke for days.... even weeks. It all fills the valley.

 

[MHarryE]

I looked out this morning and first thought thick fog, then realized the smoke is terrible. I see on the news we are getting 13 additional firefighters from Connecticut to fight our fires. The Canadian fires are now less than a mile from the BWCA. I am only about 15 miles from the south edge of the BWCA so the smoke here has been intense at times.

 

[Thomas]

Monday & Tuesday between smoke and smell from the fires got one attention.

 

[East30]

Twin Cities as well the last few days.

 

[oosik]

Been very lucky - so far this summer. Only light smoke one day. Thank God. It's 98F outside, right now. If we had smoke on top of the temps - really miserable.

So far the evenings/nights have been clear/cool and I can use my big fans to cool the house.

 

[RustyA]

Worst particulate quality air ever measured in Minnesota today...413 microns per cubic foot in St cloud. Previous record at Red lake last week at 319.

 

[ruffdog]

Eric...I thought the storm we had last night might clear up the air for us....no....today looks just like your picture. Yes, I would like clear air too, but it could be worse. Some of those people in the fire's path lost everything. Sad

 

[grsthegreat]

We had a fire burn 80 acres 1 mile from my house last week. I was at a horse show and blasted back home.
the hotshot crew fighting this fire was from Tennessee.... they did a great job. Stop fire on windy day in forrest. had help from a 737 water bomber, 2 chinook helicopters, 3 water scoop planes and 2 smaller copters.

this fire was burning towards my house....so very scared. Im truly sick of breathing smoke, but then i think of these brave soles out fighting fires in other peoples states, and i stop complaining.

 

[Torvy]

Smoky in Sioux Falls today, too. I lived here years ago and never remember smelling and seeing smoke from such distant fire.
So now my eyes have a mist from the smoke of a distant fire. Queue the music...

 

[oosik]

I know exactly how you felt grsthegreat. My heart almost stopped when I saw that wildfire - seven years ago - burn so very close to my property. The wind was propelling "fire bombs" up to a quarter mile ahead of the burning front.

At the last minuet, the wind shifted and gave the firefighter the chance they needed to extinguish the blaze.

 

[ponytug]

I feel for you, too. We have had too many fires get to the property line or close to it, in the last decade. As many of them were grass rather than forest fires, the burn areas were ready to go the next year, resetting the clock.

It has definitely changed our land use practices. We no longer let pastures go to seed in the spring ungrazed. The fire risk is just too high. I will pay someone to reseed eventually if I have to.

We have also fire hardened the house in lots of ways, but I am not under any illusions that the house is "fire safe". I have seen too many videos.

We just had a huge smoke event two days ago. It turned out the fire was a few miles away, but somehow the wind was just perfect and in less than an hour the air went from 15 mile visibility to a mile or so. All the neighbors were all a little twitchy until we found the location of the fire.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Hay Dude]

Smoke on the Water was a great tune by Deep Purple. Still like to fire that one up when lifting weights.
We are seeing some smoke in the air at Rocky Mountain National Park, but everyone has been saying it’s the clearest it’s been in a while.

 

[KWentling]

We have the smoke here too. It's going to be like this until the snow puts the fires out. This morning our smoke is probably mostly local as we have a couple of fires pretty close. 5300 acre fire 50 miles west and the Poverty Flats fire in Montana at 84 square miles as of yesterday. A couple of fires in the Big Horns too.

In March of 2009 we had a grass fire start at a sub station 5 or 6 miles south of us that was driven by a 40 mph wind. Unbelievable how fast that fire got here. I saw the smoke, and a few minutes later saw the flame front. Went out and got on the old 830 Case with the 8' back blade and started a fire line until the smoke got so bad I had to quit. My fire line reinforced by a county grader stopped it a couple of hundred yards south of the yard, but it burned up both sides of our property and around 2 of the neighbors houses. The fire dept got here in time to save those houses from damage. We had fence to fix after the fire and livestock to get back into their respective pastures as we had opened gates so they could get out of the way. That 40 mph wind blew in a spring snow storm the next day and we had 4' snow drifts to contend with. I'd rather put up with the smoke than be dealing directly with the fire.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

It was pretty bad in Bismarck today. Visibility down to less than a mile. Can't go outside without smelling smoke.

 

[oosik]

I've got light smoke here this afternoon. I'll be turning on the fans as soon as the outside temperature drops. 95F @ 7:55 pm.

 

[grsthegreat]

I think you better invest in central air .....heat will probibly be the norm for us in future years.

 

[cqaigy2]

Have the fans going this morning pulling in cool 60F Stayed pretty warm all evening yesterday.

 

[grsthegreat]

nasty smoke in air today. viability maybe 1/2 block

 

[oosik]

So much for the good times. It's 97F and smoky here. Predicted to be 100+ later today.