People from San Francisco to Seattle woke Wednesday to hazy clouds of smoke lingering in the air, darkening the sky to an eerie orange glow that kept street lights illuminated into midday, all because of dozens of wildfires throughout the US West. Uncontrolled wildfires driven by high winds and unprecedented temperatures raged across the region.
Dozens of large blazes burned in Washington, Oregon and California over the Labor Day holiday weekend, as the thermometer soared. Temperatures in the western part of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley topped 49 degrees Celsius (121 Fahrenheit).
Fires forced thousands of residents to evacuate their homes and closed several national forests across California. The skies turned into shades of brown, ochre, yellow and orange as blazes ravaged the Bay Area.
Film critic Kevin L Lee compared the atmosphere to the second Blade Runner movie, Blade Runner 2049, a dystopian science fiction film set in the near future.
It is LITERALLY Blade Runner 2049 in California right now. pic.twitter.com/FAggbTQeNB
— Kevin L. Lee (@Klee_FilmReview) September 9, 2020
Whereas editor Meredith Haggerty marveled at how out of hand the situation had gotten, with Covid-19 masks on people’s faces and skies lit orange because of wildfires.
Imagine showing this tweet to yourself a year ago and explaining “oh no, the masks aren’t because the sky is orange, that’s for a different thing.” https://t.co/nnqoOBk3uM
— Meredith Haggerty (@manymanywords) September 9, 2020
Discussion about this post