toronto air quality

A giant dong-shaped smoke cloud is exposing itself over Toronto

If you're not one of the people getting physically sick from Toronto's abysmal air quality this week, you're likely at least sick of hearing about it as smoke from hundreds of wildfires elsewhere in the country continues to smother the city.

Millions of hectares of forest may be burning and we may be keeping an eye out for possible raining ash, but residents are taking a tip from our neighbours in New York City — which truly resembles a scene from Blade Runner 2049 right now — and keeping their sense of humour about the situation.

One social media post points out a particularly worrying quality about the smoke blowing over the area today — no, it's nothing to do with its potential to cause adverse health effects, but instead its amusingly phallic shape, which is prompting some comedic gems.

"I do not like where this is going," a Redditor quipped along with an image of the smoke forecast for the GTA this afternoon. The screenshot of the moving radar map shows a dark, round blob of dense particulate matter over the Buffalo and Niagara region, with a less dense projection reaching over Toronto and more northwesterly Ontario suburbs.

toronto airOf course, people are comparing the shape of the plume to genitalia, with such zingers as "Toronto is getting the shaft" and "smoke is stored in the balls" populating the comment section.

"The air quality down there is definitely taint-ed," one person joked of Buffalo. "Georgian Bay is just getting the tip," another piped up.

As some jumped in to report finding ashfall in their area this morning, others responded with "I believe it! I could feel the ash in my mouth" and "There's a joke about eating ash here, but I'm not gonna make it."

toronto air

You can track the smoke yourself with the forecasting tool from firesmoke.ca

As the day progresses, the smoke cloud is shifting to various different shapes, which you can track at firesmoke.ca as you hide indoors and try to avoid exposure as we face yet another special air quality statement cautioning the public of high levels of pollution due to the smoke.

Lead photo by

firesmoke.ca


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