Cleaning up after the wind, on houses, driveways and everything the dust lands on.
Wind runs this valley. Santa Ana events push gusts over fifty miles an hour through here, and when there has been fire anywhere in the county the air district puts out dust and ash advisories for exactly this reason. What blows through does not stay in the air. It lands on your roof, your walls, your patio and your car.
The fine grey film people notice on a windowsill after a wind event is the same film covering the whole house.
There is no point cleaning in the middle of a wind event, and there is every point cleaning once it passes. Ash is alkaline and abrasive: left sitting on paint and glass, and then rained on, it etches.
Dry heat is the other half of the local problem. It cracks fencing, fascia and trim, and a surface that is already opening up needs a gentler wash than one that is sound.
Screens and window tracks hold more of this than anything else on the house. They are also the reason the inside gets dusty a week after you cleaned it, which is why we rinse them rather than working around them.