Smoky Day Yesterday

There are mountains back there, I swear. That's not a pile of low clouds, that's smoke.

Not fog! Smoke!

 

Just a county over, maybe an hour's drive away, we have over 11,000 acres of national forest burning. It's called the Matt's Creek fire.

Much of the eastern seaboard has had forest fires in the recent weeks. We've had a drought. I have been saying "drought" even when the weather people were cheerfully declaring yet another sunny day for dog walkers. They didn't note that we were not having enough rain until it was well past overly dry and into "burning up." But now we are in drought.

Yesterday the smoke billowed down from the fire into our area. It was so thick the mountains disappeared. I could barely see across the road to my cousin's house. It was a good day for me to stay inside, or wear a mask if I went out.

We woke to rain this Tuesday morning, though, the first good rain we've had since at least June. We've had about two inches, and it is not running off or rolling down the hills. The dry ground is sucking it up, and the grass, though dormant from a recent frost, is turning greener every time I look out the window.

We have a heavy, thick fog this evening, and I don't know how much of that is cloud and how much is smoke. The smell of a forest fire still lingers in the air a little, even after all of that rain, so I imagine it's a bit of both.

I have no doubt that the climate is changing. I also don't doubt that humanity's industrial age has helped this along. Whether or not we do anything about it remains up to those who have more power and influence than I, and whether or not the initiatives currently underway are feasible or enough, I cannot say. I do think it is stupid to ignore it and not to attempt something, even if it turns out to be wrong. After all, what can it hurt to try to cut back on hazardous emissions from smoke stacks?

A recent "smokestack" release from the nearby cement plant. I took this photo about a week ago.