Benjamin Errett nails it in his Toronto Star “The Big Number” column this past week with this simple but cutting question: “How big does something have to be to ruin a summer?”
His answer lands with unsettling precision: just 2.5 micrometres — the average size of wildfire smoke particles now saturating our skies. And yet, these microscopic invaders have become the defining feature of what should be carefree, sun-soaked months across Canada.
Errett’s insight captures a truth we’re all beginning to face: wildfire smoke is no longer an occasional disruption. It’s becoming the default. Not a seasonal fluke — a seasonal fact. Welcome to Particulate Matter Summer.
That grain of sand in your swimsuit? At least 36 times larger than the smoke particles quietly seeping into lungs, irritating airways, and changing how we plan our days. This isn’t just a hazy aesthetic — it’s a public health threat hiding in plain sight.
What’s more frustrating is how unpredictable it all is. Unlike weather, which follows broad patterns, wildfire smoke is hyperlocal and wildly variable. A clear morning can turn into a hazy afternoon with little warning. Traditional forecasting tools, so effective for weather, often fall short here. Smoke doesn’t follow the same rules — it drifts, it lingers, it surprises. That makes planning around it incredibly difficult, especially in regions where air quality can swing dramatically from hour to hour, neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
Smoke maps lag behind reality. “Check the air quality” has become the new “check the weather” — only less reliable and far more consequential. This is the new normal: Particulate Matter Summer. We may not have asked for it, but it’s here — reshaping how we live, breathe, and define the season.
Thank you, Benjamin Errett, for putting a name to what we’re all experiencing — and for reminding us that this isn’t a mood or a meme. There really is something in the air, and it’s reshaping our summers in real time.
Karen Donoghue is an air quality enthusiast and developer of the Local Haze air quality monitoring app.