That’s not fog…

So lately around fort freedom the environment has been less hospital than usual.  So first, here’s a view I regularly see on my drive home:

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Lately however the view has been quite different.

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Since the picture off Google maps isn’t that great, here’s another set from in front of my house:

Cold Winter Day

That’s from winter 2010, here’s what it was when I got home Friday:

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Here’s the thing though folks.  That isn’t fog, it isn’t overcast, it’s smoke, and it smells like I’m sitting next to a BBQ smoker.  Seriously I went to CD’s Smoke pit Saturday for a Bacon Explosion Breakfast and there was no difference in smell there or when I got home. 

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I love that smell but it does get tiring.

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Above is a snippet of an image via NASA, what you see is a fire hose of smoke pointed in my direction.  You can just make out the Idaho Washington border, find where the border meets the Snake River (where the border starts following the river) and that is just south of my AO.

Day to day the smoke varies too.  Here’s what it was like driving home from Moscow Saturday.

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What I should have seen:

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We need rain out here in the Pacific North West.  We need it bad.  Currently a lot of the regular stomping grounds for hunting will probably be shutdown specifically because of the fire danger.