Striking photos show wildfire smoke turning the sky orange over San Francisco

San Francisco, California, on September 9, 2020.Katie Canales/Business Insider

• The sky above San Francisco turned a hazy orange Wednesday morning as the region continues to battle a series of wildfires.
• The orange sky is a result of the smoke that has blown in from the fires, with smoke particles obscuring the sunlight.
• As a result, San Francisco looked as though it were still nighttime throughout Wednesday, with an eerie twilight fog blanketing the city.

A series of Northern California wildfires broke out in late August following a cluster of lightning storms and subsequent power outages. One of the wildfires, the SCU Lightning Complex, is currently 95% contained and has become one of the largest in California's history. Firefighters continue to battle the blazes that have swept through this part of the state, including the fires that have begun more recently, like the fast-growing Creek Fire that has consumed over 160,000 acres so far.

Smoke from the wildfires has been covering San Francisco since the fires erupted, but the layer that blew in from caked San Francisco on Wednesday was much thicker. The smoke, however, sat above the fog, so air quality was not significantly worse despite the surreal sky.

Here's how the city looked in the eerie, apocalyptic-looking haze.