We have had no rain in the Castlegar region since early in July: almost a month of totally dry weather. This was made worse when a high pressure zone moved in to the area two weeks ago, trapping the forest fire smoke from half the province in our valleys. Rain has finally arrived, and I am relieved. Breathing When the smoke gets as bad as it has been I become largely home-bound. I have allergies and used to have asthma. Thankfully the days of having to carry an inhaler are behind me, but smoke in the air definitely affects me. My breathing is laboured and doing much of anything wears me out quickly. But of course, with the category 8 air quality health index warnings we had, the pollutants are impacting everyone regardless of health conditions. I spent most of the past two weeks indoors. This has been great for my reading list: I’ve managed to plow through almost five books in that time. But it is a bit depressing as well as my usual preference is to take my books outside on the porch and read and I haven’t been able to do that. I miss my brief stints of exposure to nature even in the limited form I usually take them, and have been looking forward to some relief. Finally today that relief came in the form of a few millimetres of rain. The air has cleared remarkably well, probably as much because of the change in barometric pressure as with the rain itself. It is surprising how quickly the change could be felt in the air, even in the quality of the daylight. We’ve had two weeks of yellowy-brown shaded sunlight, and now it is just simple grey-white through the overcast skies. Regardless of the cause, the air quality now is around one on the 1 to 10 scale which is about as good as it can get. I don’t know a great deal about the AQHI standard but I understand that it primarily measures particulates. Particulates are kinds of things that forest fires produce in great abundance, sadly. Thankfully particulates also bind to water droplets fairly well so many thanks to the now dirty rain. Maybe don’t drink the puddles, I guess- just splash in them if the desire overtakes you. I just hope we get a few more days of rain before the heat comes back. And I hope even more rain falls on the interior of BC where the forest fires are still burning in dozens of locations. Over 100 active wildfires are burning currently, and I know that many of those have corresponding evacuation orders. A week of good rain across the province might just calm the storm enough for crews to get ahead of the burning. On a selfish note, I’d really like to have a sunrise with a clear blue sky and normal looking sun again. And I’d like to sit out on the porch with my book in hand and a coffee by my side.