Image copyright ReutersA plume of smoke from wildfires in the US state of California has descended on the San Francisco area, causing the sky over the region to turn orange.
Some 14,000 firefighters are battling 28 major blazes across California, amid a historic heatwave.
Wildfires have burned more than 2.5 million acres in the state this year, killing at least eight people.
On Wednesday, strong winds blew smoke and ash from some of those blazes in northern parts of the state.
Image copyright ReutersResidents of San Francisco and the surrounding areas woke up to darkened skies, disorientating some, who thought it was still night time.
“It feels like the end of the world,” Catherine Geeslin, who lives in the West Portal area of the city, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“It was alarming to see it’s still dark. And it will be strange to have lunch in the dark. But you still have to get on with your day.”
Local media reported that it still appeared to be dawn at 10:45 (18:45 BST), as the sun’s rays struggled to penetrate the thick smoke.
Image copyright ReutersIn a tweet, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), said “extremely dense” and “tall smoke plumes” were “almost completely blocking out the sun”.
That smoke, experts said, was also behind the sky’s orange glow.
As wildfires continue to burn, forecasters expect similar conditions in the coming days.
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