We Don't Need No Water

As I was headed to work today, I saw that the fire brigade was at their old tricks again. There is a big Playskool half-airplane out next to the airport, and the fire department routinely puts it on fire and then puts it back out again for training purposes. The placement next to the airport is convenient, because they all see where the airport is while they're training to put out airport fires. It's also unfortunate, because the mile-high plume of smoke looks like it's coming directly from the airport. The first time we all saw it on our way to class, we thought, "Hey look, did somebody crash?" And then when we started work, every time they set the thing on fire, we had to slog through waves of travelers gaping through windows and saying, "Hey look, did somebody crash?"

This is the aforementioned smoke plume. I noticed that as the smoke gets high enough, it seems to become cloud. Or maybe it's the oldest part of the plume and has gone gray.