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Say, what's that smell? Oh, that's Quebec burning
By adamg on Mon, 05/31/2010 - 11:02am
It's the mother of all mulch fires: Winds from the north are blanketing the Boston area with the smell of a series of forest fires in central Quebec. It's so noticeable, the National Weather Service has issued an advisory and a forecast:
Areas of smoke before 3pm.
Michael Page of Hingham Weather took this video today. Normally, you'd see the ocean:
Before you shake an angry fist northward, read about how parts of Quebec are under a smog warning.
Free tagging:
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Comments
Funny, I was running down
Funny, I was running down around castle island earlier and it smelled like some good smoked hot dogs were being cooked up. A little unusual since it was 830-900am... little early for the fenway franks.
Maybe this was the reason?
Both my roommate and I noted
Both my roommate and I noted an incense - like smell around the house and in the yard (Spring Hill, Somerville). Was confusing because we could tell that something had burned though we didn't hear fire engines overnight.
Maybe we'll have another
Maybe we'll have another "dark day": http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/tag/new-england...
It's HORRIBLE! I went for a
It's HORRIBLE! I went for a jog and had to turn around, there's smoke EVERYWHERE and it smells like burning plastic, one of the smells I cannot stand.
Keep yer skirt on Sally
It doesn't smell like burning plastics [smells lightly like a wood stove or smoker], and it's really only going to be bothersome with those with the worst respiratory ailments.
Mixed in with the smell of charcoal BBQ, burgers and dogs it's hardly noticeable.
Sunset is around 815 tonight, and if it doesn't blow off by then or get cloudy we should get a spectacular sunset.
I've been visiting my family
I've been visiting my family in Marshfield, MA (40 mins south of Boston), and there's smoke shrouding our town even here. On the upside, it smells like a wonderful beach fire.
I smelled smoke when I woke
I smelled smoke when I woke up this morning and was worried that it was in my house.
The haze is so thick I can no longer see the Back Bay skyscrapers from JP.
We failed, the island sank,
We failed, the island sank, and now the Smoke Monster is descending on New England.
Where the smoke is coming from
Map of the Quebec fires.
Cameras ready?
Could be an interesting sunset.
hoping so.
hoping so.
didn't materialize, not
didn't materialize, not downtown at least.
The particulates might have been too big, the wrong stuff, or too much. Too much of the spectrum was blocked out and we got that overall, gray haze you get with smog. Too bad.
Perfect conditions for
Perfect conditions for someone just getting over a case of bronchitis. Damn you Canada.
The type of particulate in particulate matter matters
This stuff is noxious and driving our PM2.5 and PM10 (particulate mass =< x microns in size in microgram/m3) sky high ... but it actually isn't as toxic as it would be coming from a power plant, coal mine fire, etc. Most of what we see is either poorly-combusted organic carbon or crustal particles, both of which are believed to have fewer concerning health consequences than the build ups of tailpipe and power plant emissions that can happen during inversions or when we get the lovely summertime east coast brown cloud effect.
There wasn't enough information on "speciation" studies - looking at different components of particulate matter - for the EPA to get more specific than the weight of crud approach in this round of regulations. That may change in 5 or 10 years. Not that this stuff doesn't have health consequences ... the Aussies and the Southern Californians have been studying those for some time ... just not as toxic as similar levels of combustion crud from industrial and transport sources.
It was rather hazy along River Street...
...near the new PriceRite supermarket today.
I have the air conditioner on right now. It's helping to keep the humidity down in the apt and killing the smell.
If you think it's bad here
Check out this photo (on top of a story that says firefighters are making progress against the fires).
Legumes
To combine a marginal Quebecois slur and a bit of British linguistic history, this is a real pea-soup Pea souper!
A little late responding to this post, but
I remember smelling the acrid smoky smell everywhere, and seeing a thick haze from my house. I had to take my African Grey Parrot to Angell Memorial on Monday for a check-up, and, worried about the affects that the fumes could have on my African Grey's sensitive respiratory system, I got her back out to my car as fast as I could afterwards.