No wonder the air in my area smelled suspiciously raunchy.

[TexasStooge]

Fire, weather pattern may have caused smoky smell

By ALAN MELSON / DallasNews.com

Did the morning air seem a little less crisp in your neighborhood? If so, you’re not alone.

Residents from several North Texas cities called the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and other government agencies Monday to complain about a smoky smell, as though there were a large fire nearby.

Dave Barry, spokesman for the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the EPA also had received inquiries and was investigating.

A brush fire north of Dallas-Fort Worth, coupled with a meteorological phenomenon, may be the cause.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jennifer Dunn said an inversion, which traps warmer air close to the ground under a mass of cold air, was in place over North Texas on Monday.

“If anything gets into the atmosphere, such as a fire, the particles get trapped under the inversion and spread out horizontally instead of releasing into the atmosphere,” Dunn said.

Bonnie Bowers, a spokesperson for the Blue Ridge Fire Department, said a large brush fire was reported around 3 a.m. Monday in far northeast Collin County. The blaze burned 43 bales of hay and was still smoldering 12 hours later.

Dunn said a cold front moving into North Texas on Tuesday will sweep away the inversion. However, due to ongoing dry conditions in the region, Dunn said the conditions will be ripe for more wildfires once some initial storms accompanying the cold front dissipate.