They were not clouds

Pedro and I were spending the afternoon in the patio and suddenly he said, “It’s starting to get cloudy.”
“But no clouds are expected today,” I said.
I looked up and saw a huge column of yellow smoke coming from the west. I went outside and discovered that the “cloud” smelled like smoke and fire.
Sure enough, a forest fire had started about 20 kilometres from where we live, and we soon began to hear helicopters and firefighting planes passing overhead to put out the fire.
Fortunately it was soon brought under control, but it was a reminder of the terrible dangers of forest fires in these hot days.