Hazy days and stunning sunsets: Winds carry smoke from west coast wildfires to New England skies

By Alice Coyle / Wicked Local

Posted Sep 16, 2020 

Wildfires raging in California, Oregon and Washington are now making a visible impact in the skies above communities more than 2,500 miles across the country.

Smoke suspended in the atmosphere has been carried over a large swath of the United States by wind currents, bringing with it the sight of hazy or “milky” skies. The effect can be seen in the skies over New England this week. Meteorologists expect it will continue through at least Friday.

Media partner WCVB posted live video from Sky 5 helicopter of the skies over Boston Monday afternoon on Facebook: “It looks like a hazy day across the Boston area and it’s being caused by a smoke layer aloft from the wildfires on the west coast.”

Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center in Milton shared a photo of a hazy sunrise sky Tuesday on Twitter: “This morning we’re greeted by a rather impressive smoke layer up around 25,000 feet. It’s doing an effective job of dimming the sun.”

While the air quality along the west coast has become hazardous due to the wildfires, the haze over New England is tens of thousands of feet in the sky and is not expected to cause serious health/respiratory impacts here. Instead the effect is leading to a veiled appearance of the sun during the day and some pretty spectacular looking sunsets in the evening.

It’s a different, devastating story on the west coast. More than 5 million acres have burned in the wildfires, half of them in California where 14,000 firefighters have been deployed to battle the blazes.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fires, which have now killed at least 36 people - 25 in California, 10 in Oregon and one in Washington state - since a rash of fires began burning in drought conditions a month ago. Several people remain missing and an unknown number of homes have been destroyed.

Contributing WCVB, John Bacon/USA TODAY