Smoke

Our local environment was threatened today by a forest fire up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the Shenandoah National Park. About 500 - 700 acres involved, I believe. We went for our usual walk this morning and were commenting that it certainly looked oddly hazy off to the northwest and north. And then it finally dawned on us that it might well be smoke. As the day wore on it became unpleasantly smoky outside so I closed the doors and windows and eventually even turned the air conditioning on because it was almost 90℉ out there today!

Anyway - this is a shot of the view to the north on our walk. Ordinarily Buck Mountain is entirely visible. Today it was all cloaked in smoke. It wasn't on fire itself - that would be uncomfortably close to our house! - but the smoke settled down over it and hid it entirely from view by mid-afternoon. As I type, however, it has cleared up. I hope that means they've gotten the fire under control.