Is that smoke I smell?

I knew the answer as soon as I walked outside the other morning. Each Spring in Mexico they burn the crops left in the field from the prior season. Every spring, at the end of the tropical dry season, agricultural burning and wildfires produce large amounts of smoke in southeastern Mexico and Central America. The fires usually begin in March and by late May or early June the smoke production diminishes as the rainy season begins. The peak of the burning is usually in late April and early May. Persistent southeasterly winds carry the resulting smoke to Texas, most frequently in April and May. It does put nutrients back into the soil and kill off weeds but it also puts the smell of burning wood and leaves in the air for thousands of miles. Here's our air report from Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ - pronounced TEE-SICK) for today: "Smoke from agricultural burning in Mexico and Central America is covering most of the state with "Moderate" fine particulate levels this morning along and east of a line from Sanderson to Odessa to Dalhart. Strong southwesterly winds will push the western edge of the smoke to near a line from Sanderson to Childress by mid-day, with "Moderate" or possibly higher fine particulate levels over much of the eastern two-thirds of the state."
So yes, that IS smoke that you smell, although not nearly as bad as it was one spring about 10 years ago. That time the smoke was so thick that the skies were hazy all day long and it always smelled like the house next door was on fire. Read about it here: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assets/public/comm_exec/pubs/pd/020/98-02/smokin.pdf