Story at a glance
- Eerie orange skies crept over the Bay Area as dozens of wildfires continue to burn.
- Residents have been advised to stay indoors.
Northern California residents woke to orange-tinged skies on Wednesday, a product of the massive amounts of smoke billowing into the atmosphere from multiple wildfires ravaging the state and region.
Exacerbating the fires and their outputs are northern and northeast winds that moved smoke into areas of lower elevation, blanketing the sky and filtering sunlight into warm hues of orange, yellow, red and gray, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Bay Area Air Quality organization confirms that the orange skies are a result from the wildfire smoke. Many residents also noted that while the foreboding orange skies were obviously visible, the area didn’t smell like smoke.
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Regardless, the “Spare the Air” alert issued last month has been extended to Sept. 11, which advises residents to protect their health by remaining indoors provided the hot temperatures simultaneously plaguing the Bay Area are not a health problem.
While the new skies are temporary, it may take a few days to get the normal cityscape back.
“Not a lot of change is expected,” Ralph Borrmann, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, told reporters.
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Although at least 17 fires are burning at some capacity in Northern California, one fire is not solely responsible for the blanket of smoke coating the Bay Area. Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that the fires closest to the area may not be the main culprits behind the colorful atmosphere.
“We have to think in the grand scheme,” he said. “It’s not just the fires in our backyard that affects the smoke over us. We’re talking about so much smoke in the atmosphere.”
Based on wind patterns, however, smoke from the August Complex Fire in Mendocino and ash from the Bear Fire near Chico are the two fires likely responsible for the new orange tint. The reason residents are spared from an overpowering smell of smoke is thanks to the marine layer, or an air mass developed from a body of water, that drifted over the metropolitan area.
Gass said conditions might improve with onshore winds flowing in from the Pacific.
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