California residents awoke to an apocalyptic landscape on Wednesday as smoke from the wildfires scorching their way across the state blotted out the sun and tinted the skies an eerie shade of orange. California is currently battling more than two dozen major fires in a season that has already burned more than 2.5 million acres of land—a record figure—and the fire season runs for another four months. Warming temperatures due to climate change have led to longer and more devastating fire seasons in California.

In Northern California, strong, gusty winds intensified the flames of the Bear Fire, which ignited in August amid lightning-induced wildfires that forced evacuations across the region. Those winds blew smoke and ash