A Dragon in Sheep’s Clothing

One last update today, this one for the hometown.

I’m sure you’ve seen the weather and know that it’s been blazing hot here for the last 4-5 days. The humid/heat haze is as dense as I’ve seen it here, noticeable a 1/2 mile away in the morning and 1/4 mile away in the late afternoon. I didn’t step foot outside my house on Saturday and Sunday, literally. My office a/c was cranked up yesterday and today, and I’ve actually been a little chilly at my desk with a cool breeze on my neck all day. When I leave for the day, the heat almost makes my skin tingle.

Tonight we’re supposed to get some relief. The winds are supposed to shift, the temp get down to 80 (!) and then only up to 88 tomorrow with a chance of storms. And then finally, tomorrow night will actually get into the low 70s.

The winds are already shifting. I was in Chesapeake this evening and noticed that the haze seemed to be getting thicker as the sun descended. And then I smelled the smoke. You can’t tell it from the the thickness of the haze, but there is actually a steady breeze out there, and it’s bringing up smoke from the NC wildfires. The smell is so strong that it wasn’t until I started driving home and saw the haze everywhere that I was finally convinced there wasn’t a fire nearby. The smell and haze are just as strong at home as in Greenbrier. I wouldn’t say that I got more than 20 minutes of smelling it or being outside in it, but it still irritated my throat a little.

Thankfully, it has not crept inside my house yet. I turned the a/c up a couple of degrees so it won’t turn on as quickly as these past few days. I’m hoping that by the time it kicks in again, the wind will have shifted to come off the water more instead of straight south, and the smell will be less. Somehow I doubt the pleated filter is up to the task of cutting out all that smoke.

Update 6/11: Va Pilot has a good photo of the smoke and haze (below). It started clearing last night around 10:00 and seemed clear by this morning.