The Bay Area woke up to a collective “WTF is happening” yesterday morning, making today’s grey smokey sky a grim sigh of relief. Was it finally the apocalypse? Cue an earthquake, a tsunami or tornado. Nope, it was not the apocalypse, it was a simple perfect [fire] storm of events. Despite the unease, many people were posting photos of images that, let’s hope, we never see again. We have been collecting the most striking photos of the day from Instagram — if you have one to share, please dm or tag us in yours @marinmagazine.
What Happened?
If you are still wondering WTF that was, here’s a quick recap of what two of our local newspapers called a nuclear winter. First, in Amy Graff’s SFGate article with the phrase in the title she wrote, “The reddened sky cast a sepia tone and made the world outside look like Mars or a scene from the 1982 dystopian sci-fi film Blade Runner.”
In the Mercury News article titled, “It’s kind of like nuclear winter,“ Nico Savidge and Rich Hurd wrote, “In a phenomenon never before seen at such a scale, wildfires are changing the weather of an entire region, meteorologists said. And with 28 major fires burning in California alone, forecasters don’t know when it will end.”
Adrian Rodriquez of the Marin Independent Journal, reports that smoke and haze will linger. “We’re so smoked in that it’s creating insulation,” National Weather Service meteorologist Cindy Palmer said, explaining that temperatures are much lower than what was in the forecast. “We’re still under a blanket.”
Worried about going outside? Check in on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for the latest.
Here are some of the most jaw-dropping images we’ve spotted so far on Instagram.
In closing, we loved receiving this poem by Redwood High School English teacher, Rebecca Elegant:
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Mimi Towle has been the editor of Marin Magazine for over a decade. She lived with her family in Sycamore Park and Strawberry and thoroughly enjoyed raising two daughters in the mayhem of Marin’s youth sports; soccer, swim, volleyball, ballet, hip hop, gymnastics and many many hours spent at Miwok Stables. Her community involvements include volunteering at her daughter’s schools, coaching soccer and volleyball (glorified snack mom), being on the board of both Richardson Bay Audubon Center. Currently residing on a floating home in Sausalito, she enjoys all water activity, including learning how to steer a 6-person canoe for the Tamalpais Outrigger Canoe Club. Born and raised in Hawaii, her fondness for the islands has on occasion made its way into the pages of the magazine.