PHOTO GALLERY: Smoke from western wildfires leads to weird-looking moon, sun at times

Smoke filters out the sunlight, giving it a distinct orange and red appearance

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Angela Garcia - Mill Mountain

We’ve been tracking smoke from wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada for the last few days. That smoke has been lofted thousands of feet into the air and shoved east.

Now, we’re seeing the haze associated with it in southwest and central Virginia.

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This is also helping to create some odd-looking sunrises and sunsets in our area. When smoke is present, it scatters and filters out sunlight, creating an orange/red disk appearance at the beginning or end of the day.

How smoke can add to more reds and oranges at sunrise and sunset

You can see that in a picture that I took outside the TV station early Wednesday morning.

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the article, and send us your pictures on Pin It.


About the Author

Meteorologist Chris Michaels is an American Meteorological Society (AMS) Certified Broadcaster, forecasting weather conditions in southwest Virginia on WSLS 10 News from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays on Virginia Today.

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