When the stove won't burn

Yesterday was one of those funky days with the wood stove. Every once in a while wood simply refuses to burn. Oh, it’ll smoulder and eventually turn to coals, but a crackling fire is beyond its skill. On those days, getting heat out of the stove is a day long and frustrating project.

The wood wasn’t wet, having been in the house for the better part of a week. Logs from the same pile of wood burned fiercely on Monday. And again this morning. But not yesterday. Which leads me to think it’s a weather related phenomenon. Yesterday morning dawned cloudy and dreary, though we didn’t have rain. As the day progressed, the clouds gave way to thin sun, but the sky never did completely clear off. Now, I’ve had roaring fires on cloudy days plenty of times. So, what is it that suppresses the fire on certain days? By last night, the air in here was uncomfortably brisk, but I still didn’t turn on the furnace. I figured it was a one day thing and I’d survive it. This morning, the fire took off and it’s toasty again.

I’m still not quite getting the connection to the weather, which has to be the cause. It happens infrequently enough so that I’d guess it isn’t an incoming front or an outgoing front. Maybe an inversion or something? Nothing else was different yesterday. Inquiring minds and all.