Got up this morning, smelling smoke. Went outside to find an alarming haze of it all around the rancho. Then I found this at KVUE’s site:
“The smoke smell in the air over North Austin has many people alarmed. There are no new fires in the area. That’s just the wind is blowing the smoke from the other Central Texas fires in our direction.”
The Bastrop forest fire east of the city is only about a third contained. Six hundred Seven hundred eighty-five homes out there have been destroyed so far.
Little pieces of soot are now falling in the back forty. No embers yet.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Dick, hope the embers do not ignite any fires in your neighborhood. Understand that things are so dry in Texas that even a single spark can start a fire.
Here in Washington, DC and the east coast it is just the opposite. We were already water logged from Irene and now we have gotten four more inches of rain from Lee in the last two days with maybe another two inches tonight and tomorrow before the rain stops! Wish we could send some of our rain to Texas to put out the fires and end the drought.
Weather Bell, a subscriber forecast site I use, says we’re in an analogue of the terrible drought of the 1950s, which means there’ll be no significant rain for us through the winter. I expect the fires will keep burning until there’s nothing left to burn. Might reduce some of our vehicle traffic as the recently-arrived Yankees decamp for moister climes.
Cannot be that good for people with lung issues. But smokers will take it in their stride, I suppose.
The docs already are telling people with lung problems to stay indoors. Not much smoke in the air this morning, fortunately. The brush and forest fires east and west are still burning, but greatly reduced in size.