Bay Area Residents Mark One-Year Anniversary of Skies Turning Eerie Orange from Wildfire Smoke

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — People across the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday were remembering the sinister hue the skies took on the one-year anniversary of the day wildfire smoke turned the sky an apocalyptic shade of orange.

One year ago on September 9, 2020, skies over the entire Bay Area were turned an eerie and angry orange color by the smoke from the unprecedented West Coast wildfires that were burning across Northern California and Oregon in the late summer and early fall.

The frightening vision straight out of dystopian science fiction films like Total Recall and Blade Runner 2049 left residents in the region stunned, with even those who have long been ringing climate alarm bells looking for the right words.

Streetlights stayed on for most of the day because it just was so dark. On Thursday, people took to social media to share their memories of that day. It is a date none of us will forget.

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While the Bay Area has not seen anything as bad since that day, similar skies have been present for days at a time over the Tahoe area due to smoke from the encroaching Caldor Fire that forced the entire town of South Lake Tahoe to be evacuated.

As of Cal Fire’s latest update, about the same acreage has burned so far this year — over 2.1 million acres, with the Dixie Fire consuming nearly half of that — as was burned in all of 2020.