Something foul blew into Kansas City, Missouri on Wednesday night. The air smelled dank as hell (and not in a good way), which some residents described as nasty feet or literal shit, according to local KSHB news.
Meteorologists in the region are blaming the smell on the agriculture industry in Minnesota. In other words, people were probably sniffing shit. A cold front swung south into Kansas City Wednesday, shifting the winds so that they were coming from the north, National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah Atkins told Earther. This cold front is also what’s behind the “winter-like temperatures” that’ll hit eastern parts of the U.S. over the next week, per the weather service.
The cold front was shallow—meaning it was closer to the ground—so the smell kept closer to where people live instead of mixing with the rest of the atmosphere, which would’ve helped dissipate the odor. The winds travelling quicker than normal certainly didn’t help either, Atkins said.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever seen something quite like this before,” Atkins said of the odor’s ability to travel.
Her team isn’t even completely sure whether farms are to blame, but that’s the working theory. The team used a high-resolution reverse trajectory—typically reserved to pinpoint the source of spills or plumes—to find out where the smell may be coming from. The odor posed no public health threat, thankfully.
Why does half of Kansas City smell like poop right now?
— Charles Jay (@CharlesFromWork) November 7, 2019
#kansascity peeps: Why does it smell like a butt outside? ???? ????
— TeeHod (@teehod1982) November 7, 2019
Weather, man. It brings us snow, rain, and now a great whiff of booty.