The eerie glow of West Coast wildfires can be seen 20 miles out in the Pacific Ocean

The 40 wildfires burning across California, Oregon and Washington are creating a strange glow powerful enough to be seen 20 miles out in the Pacific Ocean, according to the National Weather Service.

Photos posted Tuesday on Facebook show the coastline now appears locked in permanent dusk, with only a thin band of gold separating the orange sky from rust colored ocean waters.

“A buoy about 20 miles off the coast of Oregon captured these stunning images this afternoon of thick smoke over the Pacific,” the NWS reported. “Pictures taken at ... 1:10 p.m. PDT.”

The photos were posted by an NWS office in Morehead City, North Carolina, which underscored the atmospheric impact by sharing additional photos taken at the same time from buoys on the East Coast. The images showed a thunderstorm and rain off Diamond Shoals, N.C.

“God help the West Coast!” one woman said, after sharing the post.

NOAA officials told McClatchy News on Wednesday the orange glow picked up by the buoy is due to a cooler air mass from the Pacific Northwest that is generating east-to-west winds in the region. A wind shift back in the other direction is expected in the next few days, officials said.

The National Emergency Fire Center reports there are currently 23 “large” wildfires in California, 10 in Washington and seven in Oregon. Tens of thousands of acres have been burned, the site says.

The Creek Fire in Fresno County, California, is largest at more than 175,000 acres, according to Fire.ca.gov. It has been growing since Sept. 4 and remains out of control, the site says. And the Dolan Fire near Big Sur on California’s Central Coast more than doubled in size Tuesday, and stood at over 90,000 acres Wednesday morning.

Smoke and ash from the fire has spread across multiple states in the past week, and has turned the skies orange in some of the nation’s most visited national and state parks.

“This smoke is filtering the incoming energy from the sun, causing much cooler temperatures and dark dreary red-shifted skies across many areas,” the National Weather Service tweeted late Wednesday.

This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 8:19 AM with the headline "The eerie glow of West Coast wildfires can be seen 20 miles out in the Pacific Ocean."