Smoke from County Fire creates eerie orange haze in Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The fog rolled in over the weekend, like a typical San Francisco summer. But then, many people in the Bay Area were surprised to wake up Sunday to not only fog, but a very strange orange glow.
"I came out of the supermarket last night and everything was just yellow, like everything looked like the end of the world, like it was very surreal," said Kevin Gill who lives in San Francisco and was surprised to witness his weekend go from sunny to spooky. "When I woke up this morning, I opened the blinds and everything was still yellow, so I knew something was up."
PHOTOS: Bay Area sky turns eerie orange from County Fire smoke
Something was up, up above a layer of summer fog that rolled in Saturday night. "The smoke is just blowing right up over the fog," explained Bay Area Air District spokesperson Lisa Fisano, who says the fog is actually trapping smoke that blew into the Bay Area from the County Fire in Yolo County. "That's actually helpful to us. Although we see the orange haze, were not actually getting the smoke, but we are getting some of the ash that's raining out from that."
A thin layer of that ash covered cars and patio furniture throughout the Bay Area Sunday.
RELATED: Smoke Advisory issued for Bay Area due to wildfires
"Their whole back patio was covered with these flakes, like snow almost," said Jim Kennedy who lives in Alameda and saw ash throughout his neighborhood. He says after last year's North Bay fires, the ash has him concerned about what this fire season has in store, "we have never been anywhere near the fire problem, but last year was just such a disaster, it's definitely something I'd be really concerned about."
MAP: Take a look at the 'County Fire' burning in Yolo County
Joanne Moylan and Bob Aube live in Davis, less than 15 miles from the fire in Winters. They drove to the Berkeley Marina Sunday to escape the heat and smoke. "We came over the long way, over Concord, all smoke, smoke, smoke, it's horrifying," said Moylan. Aube says the Bay Area's smoke and fog mixture is a big improvement over Yolo County. "We're in heaven here, because it's 98 there. We grew up in the Bay Area, we just said, let's drive an hour and cool off, so this is really a welcome temperature."
According to the Bay Area Air District, the wind has been blowing the County Fire smoke directly over the Bay Area all weekend. But starting Monday, the wind is expected to shift from a northerly direction to westerly winds, which should push the smoke east, away from the Bay Area by Tuesday or Wednesday. But it could also start to get smoky again on Tuesday and Wednesday because of 4th of July fireworks.
TIMELAPSE VIDEO: Smoke creeps towards San Francisco at sunset
