When I moved to this new area, one of the first interactions I had with a local was the man from the cable company.
He was here at 8am in the morning on the day in which I was moving into this house.
I had just mopped all of the tile floors with bleach and decided to open all of the windows and doors to ventilate the chemical odors and fumes. The cableman wasn’t particularly polite during his visit, but I’m still happy he warned me about potential issues with open window ventilation in this area. He said that the dust and mold levels are much higher because of the abundance of trees and dead foliage in the neighborhood. It’s partially rural with wooded lots separating a handful of houses on each street. He told me that opening the windows and doors like that will let in air contaminants that could be difficult to remove once they’re inside. At first I didn’t want to believe him, but I looked it up online and found out that his warnings were consistent with readily-available information on climate and weather patterns in my specifica area. However, I learned something even more pressing while doing my minimal research. I had no idea that this area was prone to actual dust storms, and what I was reading urged residents to close-up their homes in the event of a dust storm. Otherwise you could get dust all over your indoor surfaces and inside your HVAC system. Often the air conditioner will be cycling at seemingly random moments throughout the day, so it could very well be running if there’s a sudden dust storm that comes without warning. I’m glad that I learned what to do to protect my house and my central HVAC system if there’s ever a dust storm rolling through my area.