why it happened and what about tomorrow? and a lot of people are rushing to buy air

bay area skies scribed as eerie and a apocalyptic. some saying they were even scared. the orange atmosphere has quickly turned into a dark night here in the east bay. what people are doing to both remember and cope with the unearthly sky. smoke choking our skies today. i'll let you know how much longer the air quality will suffer coming up. purifiers and filters. air quality experts with tips on how you can take safety a step further. abc 7 news starts right now. >> building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc 7 news. >> if i can imagine what the end of the world was going to look like, it would look like this. >> honestly, unlike anything i've ever experienced and i've lived in northern california for 36 years. >> it's so dark. it's scary to me. >> i've never seen anything like

this before. >> this is strange. it's weird. >> it's. a dlie like no other in the bay area. our entire region bathed in an eerie glow of orange and red. a look at why it happens. >> what a strain day we had. good evening. i'm dan ashley. we have team coverage tonight on the eerie orange skies that loomed over the bay area. we're going to start with abc 7 news reporter kate larson in the east bay where she found people searching for a sense of normalcy. >> reporter: photographers lined up along treasure island road to get potentially once in a lifetime snaps of san francisco's skyline cloaked in a cloud of orange. >> it's really sad that it's the condition the way it is, but it makes for some really dramatic pictures for sure. >> reporter: both automobile photographers trevor joelen and daniel turned their back to the road and pointed up. >> even with the fog, it's usually just gray and neutral colors, but today it's aot orange and red.

>> reporter: in walnut creek, cars were covered in arab and in oakland the zoo closed because of poor air quality. the solar panels on a abc 7 photographer's home in pinole generated a fraction of electricity when the sun's rays actually reach the earth. out here in the bay exercising, fishing, doing whatever they can to find some slice of normalcy. >> i was pretty disoriented, honestly. i missed an appointment. i almost never do that. >> reporter: jason johnson says the weather reminds him of growing up in the midwest. >> a storm would blow in around the time of a tornado or something like that and it would be pitch black outside all of a sudden in the middle of the day. it is very peculiar for this area. >> it's just so crazy, you know, the virus, i mean, everything is just like what next? >> reporter: reagan spent the evening fishing at point emory. he said the only other team he's felt this way was when he was working on the collapsed bay bridge after the 1989

earthquake. >> it felt like the end of the world. >> reporter: the sky didn't turn away gourmet diners. >> a craving for pizza. a dystopian reality -- >> how is the pizza making you feel? >> honestly, a lot better. i recommend it, yeah. >> reporter: so grab a slice. it's called comfort food for a reason. kate larson, abc 7 news. >> and it has to help at least a little bit. well, people we talked with tonight say the sinister skies were not like anything they've ever seen before. abc 7 news reporter j.r. stone has reaction and disbelief from san francisco. >> reporter: this is what downtown san francisco looked like at 9:30 wednesday morning. a skyline with an unforgettable yet eerie orange backdrop as smoke from the north pushed into the area. >> apocalyptic and unearthly and just something i've never seen before. >> reporter: thoughts echoed by those in san francisco and across the bay area. in half moon bay, christopher manchester was giving a kayak tour, and this is what it looked

like. >> from a dark orange, almost red to a yellow. >> i've been here 30 years. i don't recall anything like that. >> i've been here 20 years from new york. i've never seen anything like it. >> reporter: leo gomez shot this video showing the ash that had fallen from the sky. even into the afternoon hours, the dark orange skies stayed with us. i went live on facebook near san francisco's city hall just after 1:00 wednesday afternoon and the sky hadn't changed a bit. >> you can see what i'm talking about as i go from this low angle here of what the skies look like here in san francisco. >> it's so unfortunate. while we may be concerned about the quality of our air, there's thousands, tens of thousands of acres burning, and so that's immediately where my mind went. >> reporter: certainly a sad reminder of the fires that are burning across california and the northwest. >> it's sad, you know? i mean, here we don't suffer from the fire, we just get the smoke, but it's -- it's just sad to see with the climate warming

up that so many fires are ravaging california and even other states. >> reporter: j.r. stone, abc 7 news. >> now, let me show you this. this was the average air quality for the bay area today. according to purple air, most areas were in yellow and orange as you can see. previously days have been deep red and purple. so why did we see ominous orange skies but decent air quality? well, here's abc 7 news meteorologist sandhya patel to explain. sandhya, so interesting when you step outside you expect it to feel and smell much worse than it actually did. >> absolutely. and, dan, you didn't really smell that much smoke and there was good reason for this. it felt like we step on to another planet, on to mars today. take a look at this explanation. dense smoke from the bear and august complex fires drifted into our area in the upper part of the atmosphere. dimming the sunlight and making it feel more like night than day. it felt like we were on mars.

we had a multilevel smoke deck that was so thick that it reduced visibility. the winds were so light that it couldn't turn over the atmosphere but the smoke remained aloft and the air quality wasn't as unhealthy as we've seen in days past. there's a scientific explanation for why the sky looks so orange today. the longer wavelength colors of the sun like orange, yellow and red can travel far and pass through smoke. the shorter wavelength colors like blue, green, violet and indigo can't travel as far and they reflect and bounce back. now, i do want to show you that smoke from the satellite perspective. in the upper layers of the atmosphere, the wind direction was out of the north-northeast, so the large fires, the august kplebs fi complex fire and also the bear fire transporting the smoke down into our area. we had the stable fog layer at the lower parts of the

atmosphere. it's a very complicated outlook. i'm getting asked a lot on social media. so are we going to see a repeat of the orange skies of today? the reason why it's so complicated is the wind is switching direction, tomorrow coming out of the south-southwest. onshore breezes, but there are fires burning to our south, multiple fires in the state, which makes it complicated, along with the wind direction. we know one thing's for sure, the fog and the smoke reducing visibility to 1 million in half moon bay, 4 miles in santa rosa. watch out tomorrow during the commute. air quality right now because a lot of that smoke is aloft, it's not down near the surface, moderate to poor here in the bay area. i'll be back with a look at the spare the air alert and how long it's going, plus a look at when some areas may see some rain. dan? >> that really explains why this occurred. thank you very much. >> thank you. see you in a few minutes. people in the castro valley area are among those who can't believe what they're seeing.

a silhouette of black and misty orange. you can see the tower there between twin peaks and mount sutro. 16th and market street, a popular intersection. never seen it in this light. dawn promptly turned into night with no daylight in between in the castro. now on the peninsula, the haze came with a coating of ash from wildfires. more than 150 miles away, keep in mind. you can see cars are coated in it. the smoke layer made it so dark, sensor lights were staying on in the middle of the day, and the crickets were actually chirping. they were fooled, too. and this is what it look like from the air. a passenger took these photos from a window seat as his plane was landing at sfo. >> you could smell smoke in the cabin. unfortunately, we could see outside. it wasn't engine fire smoke, just burning you could smell. you could see the ground on that side. you couldn't see it on this side just dark, dark burnt orange. it was crazy. >> reporter: sfo says the air

quality did not affect departures or arrivals believe it or not. it was raining ash at the heyward airport this afternoon. our sky 7 photojournalist found car after car coated in the thin layer of that ash. well, the north complex fires burning north of sacramento was responsible for some of the smoke now drifting our way, and one of the fires in the complex, the bear fire, exploded in size last night and has now sadly turned deadly. terrifying video shows the fire whipping along a road in oroville this morning. that fire has burned more than 252,000 acres in these counties. it is 24% contained. parts of the town of oroville are still under threat and some of the surrounding area has already burned. >> people come around and have breakfasts there, and i've had christmas there and thanksgiving before. >> the fire has now forced evacuation warnings for part of

the town of paradise. all too familiar for residents, the camp fire, remember, destroyed the town two years ago and killed dozens of people. tonight the butte county sheriff had to announce three unevidence individuals have now died in the bear fire. >> this is the part of my presentation that i've been dreading. it brings back memories -- >> very painful memories. 12 people are unaccounted for. firefighters say they've had to rescue more than 100 people and fire conditions have been tough. today one fire crew had to take shelter in a building while their vehicle burned. to provide some relief tonight, some firefighters from several east bay departments left for the bear fire to pitch in and help out. you can follow the fires all across california with our exclusive wildfire tracker. it will also provide you with air quality information. that's available now at abc7news.com and the abc 7 news app as well. in the north bay, smokey skies ainfected pg&e's efforts

today to restore power knocked out by public safety power shutoffs. 16 helicopters were grounded because there was just poor visibility. they couldn't fly. the lights are back on tonight for most of the estimated 172,000 impacted customers in 22 counties where the power was deliberately cut off to prevent fires. that includes more than 22,000 residents in sonoma and napa counties. a lot more to come here on a busy night. smoke and haze so thick that it shrouded the iconic golden gate bridge. the rare photo opportunities it created for tourists. respiratory relief. air quality experts share tips on how to improve the air inside your home. that story up next. and the pandemic has added ne parents. could paid leave help build a better bay area? we'll have that and a lot more, but first, here's a look at what's coming up tonight on "jimmy kimmel live" with guest host brad paisley.

brad? >> thanks, dan. i'm brad paisley, you're welcome. guillermo, let's give the challenge another try. want to? >> sure, whatever you say, man. >> all right. let's see this. (vo) my name is cynthia hawkins, the owner of hawkins house of burgers. my grandparents came here in 1939 and we've been serving this community for over 80 years. my dad always said, take care of your community and they will always take care of you. and they have done so. through the ups and through the downs. my name may be on this building, but this place belongs to all of us. ♪

. just before 11:00 a.m. on wednesday and all this smoke, this is all we can see from the golden gate bridge and we're right next to it. all of this coming down from the north. it's like nighttime out here. if you look at the cars coming down the mountain there, they all have their lights on. i've been reporting 42 years. have never seen anything like this and hope i never see it again. >> we are all with -- in agreement with our wayne freeman on that. drone 7 captured images of the san francisco skyline and along the embarcadero this morning. landmarks all against a dark orange smoke-filled backdrop. and take a look at this incredible video from oakland

shot at 11:30 this morning. just watch as the drone zooms out and the city skyline just disappear into a thick orange haze as we pull out, you'll see it just vanishes. in that eerie rust-colored sky. well, there's no denying the entire bay area witnessing the effects of california's rages wildfires. and abc 7 news reporter spoke with experts about best practices and ways you can protect yourself from all this smokey air. >> reporter: lingering smoke and orange sukhois may have kept many indoors wednesday, but air quality experts say you can take safety a step further by investing in quality air purifies and filters. >> having at least bun clean room would be kind of a good resource for people to have, especially now that wove got this sort of new normal. >> reporter: he means an area closed off from contaminants. he suggests nonozone-producing,

high efficiency particulate or hipaa filters. art is -- not all p made equal. >> make sure that the product you're about to purchase -- because right now there's a lot of products on the market. that those products not only were tested, but they actually pass the standards. >> at lawrence livermore national laboratory, this engineer is working with adams on a project to clear air indoors and improve health. their ongoing effort made more challenging with both covid-19 and california wildfires. >> whether it's wildfire or virus, we need to have a closer tack on that. >> reporter: for covid, adam says the goal is to increase ventilation by bringing in outside air to dilute the air indoors. to combat smoke the recommendation is to stay indoors, shut windows and to prevent outside air from coming in. >> it's a double-edged problem

that we're currently faced with and it's slightly contradictory lens of what should we do. >> her advice, go back to basics when disinfecting indoors. use baking soda or vinegar instead of chemicals. this will limit the need to ventilate and let in outside air. >> all right. let's move on now to another topic. because of the pandemic, bay area workers are all facing new job realities from new safety protocols to working from home, changing careers and managing work/life balance. not easy. everyone is looking for solutions. and most parents agree working from home and managing a child's remote learning is difficult, nearly impossible at times. and parents are making very tough choices in their professional lives in order to accommodate the lack of childcare. abc 7 found that some may qualify for paid leave. >> reporter: six months into the pandemic parents working from home while taking their of their

kids are burnt out. >> two hours of work, one hour with him, three hours of work. >> reporter: when schools announced they would not reopen in the fall for in-person learning, many parents had to make some important decisions and career moves. care.com is a service helping families find and manage childcare. they surveyed 1,000 parents with children under th age of 15. 73% of them said they plan to make major changes to their professional lives to address the lack of childcare for the current school year, and of those, 15% said they were considering leaving the workforce altogether. that would be tommy betles. >> i am a finance professional work for a software company. >> reporter: but this summer when the family realized that 6-year-old oliver would not be returning to school for in-person learning, betles decided to quit his job to help manage the household, take his daughter to preschool, and supervise his son's online education at home.

>> up to this point, my wife's been the one to make most of the sacrifices in her career for mine. serving as the primary parent. and it was only fair that i do the same, and i'd always wanted an opportunity to kind of return the favor, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. >> can't read that. >> oh, come on. >> reporter: literacy development begins early in a child's life. they require that one-on-one attention. >> i'm worried that zoom is just not going to provide that, and there's a big downstream effect as a result. >> reporter: while he says for now they can manage on one salary, other parents can't. what many don't know is that they may qualify for paid leave through the family's first coronavirus response act, which passed last march. >> if you're a parent and you have a child under the age of 18 whose school or childcare has closed then you are entitled of up to 12 weeks of time away from work at 2/3 pay. >> the company you work for can

make up the difference to make you whole. but people who are essential workers don't qualify and your company has to have 500 or less employees. the act is expected to expire in december. congress is now trying to pass the h.e.r.o.e.s. act which would extend those benefits, but it's stuck in the senate. those who have decided to leave the workforce hope to eventually return. >> specific to my situation, perhaps my company would say, yeah, come on back. i'll stay in the same profession. and hopefully people won't mind that there's a little bit of a gap in my -- in my employment. >> reporter: most agree it's risky to leave the workforce amid an economic crisis, but many are willing to chance it for the benefit of their children in these trying times. leeann melendez, abc 7 news. >> people meeting the challenges as best they can. >> all right. let's return to the weather. meteorologist sandhya patel is

back with the forecast for the next few days. sandhya? >> yeah, dan, it seemed so surreal today with the orangey skies, ash falling from the sky. i want to show you a live picture tonight from our san jose camera. it is a very murky view as we are dealing with not only the fog and low clouds, but also still the haze and the smoke. as you can see from our east bay hills camera, this is a time lapse that captured both the fog and the smokey skies, the orangey haze there across the region. now, a lot of people are asking, are we going to see this again? i think tomorrow there will still be time to see the orangey sky. air quality will continue to suffer. i want to show you the smoke forecast down near the surface tomorrow morning. that smoke settles so some areas will be in orange here in the bay area. so the air quality will deteriorate as we head into the nighttime hours. notice with the change in the wind direction, some of that smoke from the dolan fire on the central coast will be moving into our area, so just because wind changing doesn't mean we're out of the woods in terms of the smoke impacts.

this continues and we get a brief respite early friday, but then it picks back up again. air quality will suffer through friday, so a spare the air alert is up through friday. poor to mad rate, saturday sunday, moderate air quality from the district. live dopplar 7 showing you fog near the coast. a look at those temperatures, and, really, they didn't warm up much 20, 30-plus drop in temperature. upper 50s to low 60s. the highs for today, anywhere from the low 60s to the low 70s. nothing like what we expected. it's a very foggy view. expect fog, haze and patchy drizzle tomorrow morning. poor air quality again and that spare the air alert continues. as we look at the hour by hour forecast, definitely watch out for slippery roads at 5:00 a.m. and around 8:00 a.m. as we will see some spotty drizzle and mist along the coast, around parts of the bay, by 4:00 p.m., the fog layer thins out a bit. perhaps you'll see a little more mixing along the coastline and blue skies. temperatures anywhere from the low 50s to upper 50s tomorrow

morning, and then tomorrow afternoon, low 60s to the upper 80s. it is still going to be hazy across the region. here's a look at the extended outlook. one computer model bringing the pacific northwest some rain. northern california, monday night into tuesday, possibly into wednesday. keeping an eye on this, it could slip south into our region which, of course, we all need here. accuweather seven-day forecast. spare the air with smoke and haze the next couple of days. a little warmer saturday and sunday is cooler, temperatures remain pretty much in the 80s inland, 60s coast side. we got rid of the extreme heat, dan. we're on the right track, but we gained that heavy smoke. i'm hoping we can get rid of the smoke as we head towards the weekend. >> thank you, sandhya very much. cooler temperatures would certainly be nice. certainly be nice. tomoe could all use some comforting words, so here it goes: melty, melty, tasty, grilly, juicy, sizzle. mmm, that should feel better. the sourdough patty melt is back.

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this has been a strange day to he's a the bay wit thisky. area courtesy of abc 7 news viewers. ♪ ♪

abc 7 sports sponsored by river rock casino. >> good evening. orange skies on both sides of the bay did not stop the giants or the a's. let's begin with the orange over the oakland coliseum. and jesus lo lazardo in

green. bottom seven now, fly ball with two on. kyle tucker boots it. the ball ricochets away, two runs score and we are tied at 2-2. bottom nine, ramon, you know he does not like the astros. drives this one to left-center. good night. game over. drive home safely. a's win 3-2, take a 5 1/2 game lead atop the west. to an orange oracle. giants and mariners on roberto clemente day. mike yastrzemski, three-run blast into the now darkened night sky. his ninth of the year. 3-0 giants early and they just kept scoring and scoring and -bat here. sgle 8-0 in the sixth. wilmer flores doubles to left.

10-1. their fifth straight victory. not so much orange -- where the 49ers are prepping for their season opening sunday against arizona at levi stadium. >> it's orange out here, too. i feel like in the book of eli, it's in an apocalyptic state out there. >> ash falling all over the place. it's different. >> that's for sure. games six, raptors/celtics, instant classic. toronto battling to stay alive. double overtime. norman powell the steal and the tough layup, plus the foul. 121-117, raptors. kyle lowry, are you serious? he buries the jumper falling down. raptors 125-122. temper temper. little drawl heading into game ♪

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