Bay Area sky turns bright orange

When Bay Area residents thought that the world outside could not get even stranger, the sky Wednesday early glowed a bright pumpkin orange you'd expect to see on Mars.

"I don’t remember orange skies growing up in in the Bay Area, California," shared one Twitter user.

Jan Null, a meteorologist who runs a private forecasting service called Golden Gate Weather Services said that, Winds are pushing smoke from the north, where multiple wildfires are raging to the south and into the Bay Area.

Null continued, "North winds are bringing lots of smoke from Oregon."

National Weather Service forecaster Roger Gass said a weather spotter reported falling ash at the Concord Airport.

"They reported a huge amount of ash," said Gass. "Almost to the point where it looked like moderate to heavy snow."

While the sooty air in the East Bay settled close to the surface, across most of the Bay Area the smoke was high in the atmosphere with the air quality ranging from good to moderate.

Because the fires are farther away from the Bay Area, the smoke is getting lofted high into the atmosphere, Gass explained. The mass of polluted air is currently hovering above a marine layer which pushed inland from the Pacific Ocean this morning.

Gass continued "That's the reason it doesn’t smell smoky but the sky is a different color."

Null added that the marine inversion layer acts as a barrier. "That’s why air quality isn’t too bad this morning." Null continued "The smoke is not able to mix down through the inversion. The smoke is also sort of traveling past us."