A Smokey Day

Barton Mountain ridgeline about 3 PM

We had a vicious outbreak of wildfire smoke from Quebec yesterday. The air quality index rose throughout the day to a high of 219 around 3 AM this morning. The forecast said that it would improve at 9 AM today, but it has not been as quick a scouring as I had hoped. The air alert is now extended to 12 noon today. The AQI at 9:30 AM today is still at 169. I have opened one door and one window because it has been suffocating inside the house, even with a fan upstairs and down. Sleep was fitful and interrupted often. Lucy panted in the heat, but she and the cats remained in bed throughout the night.

The road to Lyndonville about 4 PM

This outbreak of smoke is not as bad as it was for Connecticut and Washington, DC in May, when their AQI went over 300 for days. But this doesn't happen here, and it was scary. I also have my end-of-school cold, so I was anxious and coughing and miserable.

Northern Vermont State University, Lyndonville

Leaving Orleans County to Caledonia County

Amy's neighborhood about 6 PM

I am, though, counting my blessings and more aware of the danger of forest fires. There almost was one here in the 1990s but it was doused before it was big. It could happen, and we have to be aware of our actions to avoid any fires. I also don't have to live in a fire area like the Canadians. I can't imagine what it is like to live close to it and see the land and wildlife that you love destroyed. 

Sunset in Barton

This was a high AQI at 9:30 PM but it only got worse

_/\_/\_

Hazy Landscape

The Duquette Barn

I took this photo of the Duquette Barn, down the road, from the top of the hill behind the house on Memorial Day. You should be able to see the Lowell Range of mountains in the far background, but smoke from the Quebec forest fires has made the view very hazy. You can also see the infernal power lines that ruin so many Vermont photographs. They seem to be in the way much more often here than anywhere else I have photographed. This old barn is slowly collapsing. We hope that it can be restored before it is gone forever.
_/\_/\_

Our Smoky Dawn — The Canadian Forest Fires

The sun rose in a smoky, yellow sky.

I woke up at 4:30 AM this morning because of a strong smell of smoke and kerosene. I tried to wake up my new husband by saying, "Smoke! Honey, there is a fire somewhere!" But there was no response. So I got up and checked everywhere inside the house, including the furnace and wood stove. I went outside in the cold dawn and checked the forest, the wood pile, I checked everything. The kerosene smell came and went. But the wood fire smell, as if an entire campground started their fires in order to cook breakfast all at once, continued and at times intensified. Finally at 5:45 AM, John got up and reminded me of the forest fires in Quebec. "Ohhhh," I said. "Thank goodness." That was an unfortunate choice of words, because many people in Quebec are suffering and working hard to stop the fires. But I was relieved to have confirmed that there was no fire here. In Portland, Maine the fire department is getting an unprecedented number of calls because of people fearing a fire nearby.

Conditions in Montreal are much worse than here.

Here is a map I made from the resources at https://nofc1.cfsnet.nfis.org/mapserver/cwfis/index.phtml. The red states are New England. The yellow star is where we live in Vermont.

The moon this morning in the western, hazy sky.
Waning gibbous moon, 88% of full

_/\_/\_