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Smoke turned Wednesday’s skies apocalyptic on the west coast: Here’s why

Every time you think 2020 is ready to chill out...

Unearthly images poured into social media today of a martian sky invading San Francisco, California today. The orange hue is due to smoke from several large wildfires which have burst in size thanks to a powerful cold front earlier this week.

This is the SAME cold front that is bringing us our gloomy weather today!

Winds along the west coast have gusted up to 50 mph and have been howling for nearly 2 days... unfortunately, without a major weather pattern change expected, these wildfires will like spread unhindered for the rest of the week.

Visible satellite imagery shower the incredible expanse of the smoke which stretches from Oregon, all the way down the I-5 corridor. There's also a major weather factor in play which makes the San Francisco sky seem so unearthly.

San Francisco is typically know for its rolling fog banks. The fog typically develops due to the cities proximity to cool ocean waters. That tends to cool the air near the ground, leaving a wedge of warm air aloft. That warm air prevents any of the fog from rising or dispersing due to the warm/cold air density difference. It's called a marine layer.

Typically, the fog burns off as the sun rises and heats the cool layer near the ground.

However, with the smoke present, far less radiation from the sun is able to reach the surface and warm the cool layer up, essentially locking the marine layer in place.

It will likely take a major pattern change to tame the wildfires, and clear the smoke out... and that may take a few days-- meaning the SF Bay may see more scenes like this throughout the rest of the week.

Article Topic Follows: Weather

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Luke Victor

Luke Victor gives forecasts on ABC 17 News broadcasts and reports on weather stories on air and online, giving viewers and readers a deeper look at what causes different types of weather.

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