Okay, I thought we'd had the worst smoke weather you could possibly imagine. But this morning took the cake.
This morning, while puttering around the livingroom I saw rain start to fall outside the window. Oh boy! Rain, finally! That means I'll have air to breathe today! I can maybe even go outside without a particulate mask! This mask isn't just a paper mask folks. A paper mask won't do squat to remove particulate from forest fire smoke. No, this mask is the full-on Alien Bug Face mask that scares little children and less hardy adults. It is hot to wear in the 85 degree heat we've been having.
Except the heat is gone now. It was 40 degrees this morning, which, as an Alaskan, felt just fine. Very comfortable. Believe it or not standing in bare feet in a T-shirt this morning, with a little rain coming down, I thought that it could be a nice day.
Then I got in my truck to go to work and discovered that the rain was SANDY, and the smoke was not gone at all, but WORSE and clear to the ground. Visibility was near zero.
Let's recap:
It was raining gucky rain, and there was MORE smoke. I've never seen anything weirder.
I came into town and the smoke got a bit lighter. But as the afternoon wore on the wind kicked up and blew more smoke in, and it subsequently got pretty bad. Smoke is hanging in the air in the building where I work. Big gusts of smoke keep coming in the leaky windows.
There is news from south of here as well. Right now Anchorage is flooding, up to 20+ inches in places. The rain has hit Wasilla, and I suspect will arrive here sooner or later.
Let's just hope it doesn't rain mud!
