Residents in the San Francisco Bay Area awoke to apocalyptic scenes on Wednesday, September 9 as the skies over the area turned a dark shade of orange as a result of the California fires.
As the National Weather Service explained in a tweet, ‘Unprecedented amount of smoke in the atmosphere as a record number of acres burn across California & the West.’
Unprecedented amount of smoke in the atmosphere as a record number of acres burn across California & the West. From space, you can’t even see @KarlTheFog & the marine layer as the smoke extends well out over the Pacific. #CAwx #CAFires #Smoke #BayArea @CAL_FIRE @NOAASatellites pic.twitter.com/hP77TlsDCb
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) September 9, 2020
The scenes in San Francisco depict just how bad the wild fires are in California. The Creek Fore and and North Complex Fire in California are located 321 kilometres away from San Francisco bay.
‘When the smoke and ash get even thicker close to the wildfires, it can cut the sunlight out completely, making it look like the dead of night,’ CNN meteorologist Judson Jones said.
Take a look at some of the images local residents posted to social media about how the fires have affected their areas.
off momtgomery and commercial in FiDi #CAfires pic.twitter.com/PUWazKKzMx
— mike ropenis (@jmrmv) September 9, 2020
The situation in Sausalito. The ghoulish pic on the right was taken at 8:30 AM. #CaFires #Armageddon #climatechangeisreal pic.twitter.com/1A60G2YokG
— Heather Young (@HYoungwriter) September 9, 2020
A little too much napalm skies, not enough ocean eyes #CAFires pic.twitter.com/TpwKcJI19K
— Ryan Mitra (@rmitra33) September 9, 2020
San Francisco right now. Color from all the fires pic.twitter.com/jc1zRAnjc9
— ice (@icy415_) September 9, 2020
The day the sun didn’t rise in San Francisco. #Fires @SFGate pic.twitter.com/cl8kz3WW51
— Christopher Michel (@chrismichel) September 9, 2020
Forest fires have gone fully Blade Runner this morning #SanFrancisco pic.twitter.com/Qp9hgdLVvk
— gιℓєѕ (@Gi1es) September 9, 2020
SF today is really feeling like mars… #SanFrancisco #fires #ash #orangesky pic.twitter.com/7E2g19kmDW
— Eric Volpert (@ericvolp) September 9, 2020
san francisco is on fire. please guys, stay safe and strong pic.twitter.com/iJuwAgAjyY
— Lele🚀 (@LeleYang2sv) September 10, 2020
People across the Bay Area have woken to a surreal scene: smoke from wildland fires across the state have blown in, painting the sky shades of orange. Salesforce Tower is barely visible and the Coca-Cola sign still shines bright as the sun tries to pierce through.#SanFrancisco pic.twitter.com/mHzdkszxLX
— Jungho Kim / 김정호 (@jkimphoto) September 9, 2020
According to CNBC, the Creek fire, which started on Friday has already destroyed more than 160,000 of land and is 0% contained. There are currently 14,000 active firefighters trying to contain 28 major blazes across California. In total, wildfires have burned more than 2.5 million acres of land in the state and killed eight people throughout 2020, according to BBC.
‘It feels like the end of the world,’ Catherine Geeslin, who lives in the West Portal area of the city, told the San Francisco Chronicle. ‘It was alarming to see it’s still dark. And it will be strange to have lunch in the dark. But you still have to get on with your day.’
Image credit: Twitter/@chrismichel
