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October 18, 2012 3:03 PM

What is this strange smell sensation that happens to me every Fall around this time?

Every Fall for as long as I can remember, right around now, I have a strange thing happen to my sense of smell. There is an omnipresent kind of background smell. It's musty. It's not strong. It's not really a smell in the way other smells feel. It feels more like it's there under the other smells, and I smell it everywhere (inside, outside, work, home, you name it) and all the time. I especially smell it when I breathe through my nose, and I smell it when I normally don't notice other smells (i.e. I don't normally notice the smells of my house, but I notice this smell when I'm sitting there).

It generally hangs out for a month or two and disappears. It's not an unpleasant smell but it's not vanilla and lilacs either. The only time I spent October in the Southern hemisphere, it wasn't there.

Does anyone else have experience with this? What causes this?

posted by benbenson to science & nature (14 answers total)

Allergies/post nasal drip can make your nose smelly.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:04 PM on October 18, 2012 [4 favorites]

Ozone produced by weather has a smell that, to me, has properties similar to your description. Do you have electrical or tropical storms at that time of year?
posted by the fish at 3:21 PM on October 18, 2012

A lot of people (including yours truly) have autumn nasal allergies that trigger unusual smells. It's to do with the mold and decaying plant matter everywhere.
posted by Lieber Frau at 3:56 PM on October 18, 2012

Leaf mold? This time of year I always get stuffy from leaf mold, but maybe you're a super-sensitive smeller and you actually smell it?
posted by rabbitrabbit at 4:03 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Leaf mold, yes. Autumn is my favorite season in spite of my allergies.
posted by mollweide at 4:09 PM on October 18, 2012

If it smells like a Las Vegas casino, then I agree with @the fish about it being weather-produced ozone.
posted by Dansaman at 4:16 PM on October 18, 2012

Is it smashed fruit from ginkos? That happens around me this time each year and it is quite a smell.
posted by nile_red at 4:50 PM on October 18, 2012

I get this too, especially after it rains. The word to come to my mind is ozone. I have very bad allergies too.
posted by jara1953 at 4:58 PM on October 18, 2012

It's rotting leaves. The smell is especially strong after it rains, or if you're leaping into a pile of raked leaves.
posted by kerri9494 at 6:46 PM on October 18, 2012

Possibly a mild sinus infection? My partner occasionally gets something like what you describe. Last time he got something from a pharmacist to treat such an infection and apparently the smell went away quite quickly.
posted by daisyk at 1:36 AM on October 19, 2012

No allergies here, and I'd be surprised if it were a sinus infection because it happens every single year and I don't have the other symptoms. I'm going with smashed fruit from Ginkos.
posted by benbenson at 4:57 AM on October 19, 2012

nm learned how to edit!
posted by benbenson at 4:58 AM on October 19, 2012

Agree that it's leaf mold, decaying leaves and other organic matter.
posted by Miko at 7:49 AM on October 19, 2012

I think it's probably organic matter decaying. However, it could be the dust burning from everyone turning their heating units on for the first time for the season.
posted by deborah at 2:43 PM on October 20, 2012