Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Gotta Get Used to It

byRosanaHart

1.4K followers

3 years ago

The Western United States already has numerous wildfires burning in many places, already now in early June. The whole area is in an extended drought that is not expected to end quickly.

We live in the area, and whenever a thunderstorm comes through, more wildfires start. The past few days have been particularly smoky in our town, which is Silver City, NM, in the mountains in the SW part of the state. We can smell the smoke when we step outside, and sometimes the house fills up too. We do have an air filter in the living room that does a pretty good job of cleaning our indoor air.

Mercifully for us, the fires have been a distance away... at least 12 miles. But when the wind blows into our valley, we are coughing and our eyes are burning. This is likely to continue off and on. Not much rain is predicted for this so-called rainy season. The picture at the top was taken recently from our front porch, but it doesn't do justice to the smoke. Sometimes we can't even see most of those mountains.

What if fire threatened our town? Last year, my birthday present was three items to use on our older Prius. We got a cartop carrier, a tent, and blow-up bed pads. The last two can go in that carrier rather quickly and I'm currently working on a list of other things to put in the car. Two dogs and a cat with the small dog and the cat in their own carriers and the larger dog stretched out in the back along with water in jugs, food. laptops, a little clothing, documents, and so on.

It's like this in so many places. The American west is a large area, and northern Mexico has similar issues. Parts of Canada too. Wish us well!