Today, Boston and other parts of the Northeastern United States and the Midwest got the sight and smell of smoky air from wildfires raging through Northern Ontario and Minnesota. But most of the fires are taking place in my neck of the woods in Northwestern Ontario, just north of Thunder Bay.
For any inconvenience which may be caused over the next couple of days here, it pales in comparison to what is happening in Thunder Bay. My mother tells me that decks and sidewalks are covered in ash. The skies have been considerably darker than ours. Even with keeping the doors and windows closed one cannot escape the smell of smoke. Unfortunately, she does not have air conditioning which further compounds the situation. The long and the short of it is I'm glad that I'm here and not there.
While the fires themselves are mostly occurring in sparsely populated areas there are some rural communities, particularly Aboriginal reserves, which have had to be evacuated. Many of these fires could burn for months on end. In which case, the snow cannot come soon enough.
From where I sit, the one positive from these disconcerting sights and smells is that it had the effect of lowering the temperature thus avoiding yet another 90 plus degree day. But this is a very, very small consolation.
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