Of Smog and Sunsets
When I first started making my annual early spring trek to Phoenix, about 15 years ago or so, one of the first things I noticed was how clear the air smelled when I stepped off the plane.
With the really low humidity of the desert, the air seemed to be lighter than in other places. That’s not to say that the air back home in Nebraska wasn’t clean and clear, but that there was something about Arizona that just felt different.
I’ve noticed over the past few years that smog has really taken over the Valley of the Sun. The mountains are really hazy, to the point where they disappear from 40 miles out. When you drive across town with your windows open, you no longer smell orange blossoms as the dominant scent, but a kind of subtle stink.
The only benefit from all this extra particulate in the air is that the sunsets are amplified. While that’s nice, I’d rather have the old Phoenix air back.