Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Summer Of Smoke

Tuesday was not a great day to be outdoors
Have you seen how people now will say "I didn't have _____ on my bingo card for 2023"? (Fill in the blank with whatever surprise you want) Well, I'm filling in the blank with "wildfire smoke concerns" as my surprise for 2023. 

Canadian wildfire smoke has been an issue all month here in Iowa and other states in the Mid-West. It has gotten particularly bad of late with our Department of Natural Resources stating that outdoors activities are discouraged for the present time. 

I get it. I was outdoors for a few hours yesterday helping pick up bicycle donations for the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective and I tell ya what! I had a pretty good headache going afterward. It was bad here. You can even smell the smoke, it is that thick here. 

I sure hope that this clears out soon because we're halfway done with Summer and riding in this air is a no-go for me. I know that for several of my readers this is an issue as well. My heart goes out to all who are missing good days on the bike trying navigate this smoky air. 

4 comments:

Phillip Cowan said...

I was planning on doing my first singlespeed century last weekend but decided to postpone it because of the smoke. This week isn't lookin' so hot either. Apparently Quebec is burning to to the ground. My sympathies go out to the people close to the fires. If it's this bad here I can't imagine what it must be like there.

wp said...

yep. I'm just north of Chicago and I nixed my usual Wednesday morning ride today. Sucks. This is day 2 of not being able to seeing the end of my block through the thick haze. On a high note at least we don't have the apocalyptic orange skies that NY had. Hoping things start to clear up tomorrow...

Ben said...

Yeah...this is getting old. Seems worse today than yesterday. I went for a one hour ride yesterday and could smell it at times. Didnt' seem to bother me much, but I'm sure it can't be good for the lungs...going to stay inside today I think.

Gary said...

I'm from Oregon and ride everyday to work. Got used to wearing a N95 mask, just didn't ride that hard.