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The big stories are simply non-stop this year. The eerie skies covering the Bay Area this week seem like one more thing on top of all the others. But maybe not. Garvin Thomas gives us some thoughts about why there may just be a silver lining to all these orange clouds.
Though there is a logical, meteorological explanation to why Bay Area skies looked the way they did this week, it was still unnerving to our core.
Much the same way that an earthquake upends our firmly held belief in the solidness of the ground, our sun-less, martian sky messed with a lifetime’s experience of what the air can and should look like.
Knowing that this is the result of millions of acres of forest and thousands of buildings burning, makes it feel all the worse.
But could there possibly be a silver lining to all these orange clouds? A bright spot in a noon sky so dark that street lights turned on?
Brian Tang
Orange sky over San Pablo. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Chris Wendle
Yellowish sky in San Francisco. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Stephen Lerch
Orange sky over El Cerrito. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Alexander Nguyen
Orange sky over San Francisco. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Alexander Nguyen
Orange sky above San Francisco. (Sept. 9, 2020)
David McGinn
Orange sky over San Francisco. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Casey Kasten
Orange sky over San Francisco. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area
An orange sky over San Francisco. (Sept. 9, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
An orange sky above San Francisco. (Sept. 9, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
An orange sky above the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Terry McSweeney/NBC Bay Area
An orange sky over Sausalito. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Bigad Shaban/NBC Bay Area
Orange sky over San Francisco. (Sept. 9, 2020)
Nick White Photography
The sky has turned a yellowish color in Sausalito as fires continue to rage across California. (Sep. 9, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
A yellowish haze in the Bay Area. (Sept. 7, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
A yellowish haze in the Bay Area. (Sept. 8, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
A yellowish haze in the Bay Area. (Sept. 8, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
A yellowish haze in the Bay Area. (Sept. 8, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
A yellowish haze in the Bay Area. (Sept. 8, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
A yellowish haze in the Bay Area. (Sept. 8, 2020)
Scott Budman/NBC Bay Area
A reddish sun as seen from the Bay Area. (Sept. 8, 2020)
Meghan Quan
A reddish sun as seen from San Rafael. (Sept. 8, 2020)
NBC Bay Area
Smoky haze in the Bay Area. (Sept. 8, 2020)
Well, in a year when we are so divided, by race and politics, a virus and masks, it is the rare moment when we are all experiencing the same thing in the same way.
You can turn any stranger on the street and talk to them about it. It is something we have in common.
That thing may be that you’re a bit freaked out, but still, it’s the start to a conversation based on shared experience.
That’s something that doesn’t happen much these days.
And while it may, and should, lead to deep discussions about climate change and forest management, perhaps it will include a bit more empathy than we’re used to lately.
Because, for once, you do know what it is like in another person’s world.
