The Day the Sun Didn’t Come Up: Apocalyptic Skies in San Francisco

When my alarm went off, at first I thought I had mistakenly set it for the middle of the night. But by midday in California, the lights were still on. 

As more than 2.5 million acres burned during California’s worst fire season on record, the strange melange of smoke from some-odd 25 active wildfires mixing with advection fog turned the day into an orange-hue night.

I did my best to go about my day as normally as I could, though the perma-dawn wasn’t the only sign of impending doom clamoring for my attention. Add an extreme wind advisory, heat wave, and planned rolling blackouts and I never fully managed to shake the Octavia Butler “Parable of the Sower” vibes that triggered end of days visions. No news story quite captured it like the Guardian article headline: “Good Morning, Hell”.

I can’t think of a better exemplification for the trauma of 2020. If any of us were waiting for a sign that we need deep systems change, how about this?

These photos were shot in San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill neighborhood just after midday.