- California’s wildfires turned San Francisco into a hellscape on Wednesday, covering the city in an orange haze.
- There are nearly 50 active fires burning in California right now, with some having already consumed hundreds of thousands of acres.
- Climate change has been directly linked to the increase in extreme weather events such as the dry spells that sparked these and other fires.
See that image above? Pretty scary right? Well, that’s not San Francisco. That’s a screengrab from the movie Blade Runner 2049. The scary thing? Actual photos from San Francisco somehow look even scarier.
As wildfires continue to rage in California, clouds of smoke and ash have drifted all over the state, and the Bay Area was impacted severely this week. Twitter became flooded with images captured mostly on Wednesday evening showing an incredibly creepy orange hue to the sky and a thick haze covering just about everything. It’s pretty scary, but check it out and try not to think the world is ending.
Here are some of the best and most terrifying images from Twitter:
San Francisco 09.09.20 pic.twitter.com/QdqUtKiqOT
— Sneha (@mithrilmaker) September 9, 2020
Eli Harik wears a mask while gazing at the Bay Bridge and heavy orange skies due to nearby wildfires hanging over San Francisco on Wednesday, September 9 @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/B2wahjkeRw
— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) September 9, 2020
People really don’t know what to do right now. Everyone on the Embarcadero is stopping to record the sky and chit chatting in a way I haven’t seen since pre-pandemic @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/ueKQ4g7WTD
— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) September 9, 2020
It’s obviously an incredibly eerie and disturbing scene, and as some San Francisco residents noted, it’s led to a strange vibe around the city. It’s such a bizarre sight that people can’t help but stop and stare, and it really does look like something out of a post-apocalyptic science fiction flick.
There are currently dozens of fires that are continuing to spread across California, with at least 43 individual blazes requiring the attention of fire crews and officials. Many have consumed thousands of acres, but some have destroyed so much more.
The Scu Lightning Complex fire has been burning for 23 days and has consumed nearly 400,000 acres. The Lnu Lightning Complex fire has consumed over 350,000 acres. Both fires are over 90% contained, which is good news, but there’s still fires like the North Complex fire which has burned nearly 250,000 acres and is a mere 23% contained, suggesting it’s going to do a whole lot more damage before things settle down.
The photos do the fires justice, but this combination of Blade Runner 2049 music with drone footage of San Francisco on Wednesday is truly haunting:
I put Blade Runner 2049 music to drone footage of San Francisco on 9/09/20 from woahdude
If you live in any area of California that is currently experience an encroaching wildfire, stay on top of its spread using local news resources. The Los Angeles Times has a great live map that tracks active fires and the progress being made in fighting them. It also tracks beaten fires, so hopefully, we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of those in the near future.
Oh, and by the way, if you were searching for another reason to do something about climate change, this is a very big one. Wildfires due to dramatic dry seasons in the United States, Australia, and other countries have been directly linked to the changing world climate.
