As if 2020 wasn’t already enough of the mess, West Coast fires are looking positively hellish and apocalyptic with the landscapes to match. In particular, the Bay Area Fires are presenting a lot like the Denis Villeneuve-directed Blade Runner 2049, so a creative someone (YouTube user TerryTheThunder) went ahead and set the film’s soundtrack against drone footage over from over San Francisco and the surrounding area. You can see the results above, but the original footage hails from DoctorSbaitso on YouTube, and the soundtrack credit (of course) goes to Hans Zimmer as well as Benjamin Wallfisch and Vangelis.
The hue resulting from the area’s record-breaking fires will likely last for days, even though residents may not even notice a smoky odor. As ABC7 News meteorologist Mike Nicco has explained, there’s some protection coming from not only the wind (which is, of course, also spreading the fires) but the surrounding waters: “The marine layer is a stable area of air that does not rise, and so we’re continually pumping in cleaner air from over the ocean.”
Protection from smoke or not, it’s sure looking like nuclear winter or Mars over much of the West Coast. CNN meteorologist Judson Jones puts that easily observable mechanism into words: “When the smoke and ash get even thicker close to the wildfires, it can cut the sunlight out completely, making it look like the dead of night.” He added, “The smoke and ash are acting like nature’s version of an Instagram filter.”
Although the hue may disappear soon, the smoke lingering over the Bay Area could linger for months, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
(Via ABC7, CNN & San Francisco Chronicle)