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SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – People in San Francisco and other parts of California woke up on Wednesday (September 9) to a deep orange sky that triggered apocalyptic visions in a year already plagued with disturbing events.
Skies so dark at times that it seemed more at night than by day were accompanied in some places by ash that fell like snow, the cause was massive fires that filled the air with smoke and ash.
“The orange skies this morning are the result of wildfire smoke in the air,” San Francisco Bay air quality officials said in a tweet. “These smoke particles scatter blue light and only allow yellow-orange-red light to reach the surface, which makes the skies look orange.”
As the smoke thickens in some areas, it blocks sunlight and causes dark skies, officials explained.
Photos of the eerie scene, particularly of a San Francisco skyline appropriate for a dystopian sci-fi movie, quickly spread on social media.
“Is there a word for ‘the apocalypse is upon us burned siena’?” Read a tweet released by someone who felt like using the word ‘orange’ to describe that the sky was being too kind.
Others compared the scenes to planets other than Earth.
“If literal fiery skies don’t wake us up to climate change, then nothing will,” tweeted YouTube influencer and director of Zadiko tea startups Zack Kornfeld. “Enjoy joking about how crazy this year is because we made this mess and it’s only going to get worse.”
Dark skies blocking out the sun cooled temperatures in what has historically been the warmest year in San Francisco.
“The geographic color images show a very thick, multi-level smoke shroud over much of California,” the US National Weather Service said in a tweet. “This smoke is filtering incoming energy from the sun, causing much colder temperatures and gloomy, dark red skies in many areas.”
What were described as “unprecedented” wildfires, fueled by high winds and scorching temperatures, swept across a wide swath of California, Oregon and Washington on Wednesday, destroying dozens of homes and businesses in the western US states. forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate.
In California, where at least eight deaths have been reported, National Guard helicopters rescued hundreds of people trapped by the Creek Fire in the Sierra National Forest.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown declared the fires in the northwestern state a “once in a generation event.”
Jay Inslee, governor of neighboring Washington state, described the wildfires as “unprecedented and heartbreaking.”
Inslee, who campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination on a platform fighting climate change, and California Governor Gavin Newsom blamed the effects of a changing climate for the exceptional ferocity of this year’s fires.
“I literally have no patience with those who deny climate change,” Newsom said. “It is completely inconsistent, that point of view, with the reality on the ground.”
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