It was Wednesday, 15 July, my wife’s birthday. My wife and I were in bed c. 7 a.m., but hadn’t gotten up. Even with the shades drawn, we knew it looked weird out. Where is the sun?
By the time we got downstairs, I had figured it out: bad air. The poor air quality was SUPPOSED to hit Syracuse, to the west of Albany, and Poughkeepsie, to the south, but the Capital District was supposed to be spared. Obviously, no one told the wind that information.
Because of the magpie thing, I briefly became obsessed with the AQI or Air Quality Index, not just in my area but in suburban Washington, DC, where I have a good friend who is vulnerable. I noticed that, at one point in the past week, Duluth, MN was horrific. I signed up for notifications.
Here’s an article explaining this further.
| Forecasts | Current | AQI Values | Levels | Colors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Naturally, FOTUS threatened new Canada tariffs over fires sending ‘filthy’ air into US cities. I could note that the US actions cutting environmental protection has escalated global warming (see much of Europe in 2026.) Theoretically, the US could send help to fight the fires, though it appears to be another robust fire season in the United States.
Natal day stuff
My wife noted that weird stuff can happen on her birthday. In 1995, a derecho, a straight line wind event started in the Midwest and eventually struck the Adirondacks and Albany. A derecho is “a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.” Those 70+ mph winds rattled the windows and woke us both from a sound sleep a little before 7 a.m.
It tore up some trees in nearby Washington Park. But a member of our then-church had dozens of broken bones when a tree fell on her up in the aforementioned Adirondacks.
