What Was That Awful Smell in Lubbock This Weekend?

If you went outside in Lubbock this weekend, then you might have noticed the horrible smell in the air.

I was leaving my apartment on Saturday and thought I smelled cigarette smoke. I was confused because I don’t smoke, and my complex doesn’t allow smoking either. I sniffed my jacket, wondering if maybe I wore it around my dad after he went to the cigar shop, but it wasn’t that. So I just shrugged it off and figured someone was smoking nearby.

Continuing on my way, I realized that the smell was still there as I drove along the Loop, and it even stuck around once I got out of my car to head into Hobby Lobby.

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Everyone I spoke to about it was smelling the same thing so I knew it wasn’t just me, but none of us knew what was causing the god-awful stench.

Thank goodness for Nextdoor.com, because someone posted on the app asking what was with the smell. Some folks said they had an idea of what could be causing the cigarette-like odor permeating the city.

According to some users on Nextdoor, it was the smell of cotton burning. Last week, there was a cotton bale fire in a warehouse in Seminole, which is about 80 miles southwest of Lubbock. The fire burned for 11 hours, and people believe the smell of that burning cotton finally blew into Lubbock over the weekend.

It's not confirmed that this is what caused Lubbock to smell like an ashtray all weekend, but if burning cotton smells like tobacco, then it would make sense for that to be the culprit.