Item

I Stood Beneath An Orange Sky

Media

Title (Dublin Core)

I Stood Beneath An Orange Sky

Description (Dublin Core)

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, August 2020 brought devastating wildfires to the state of California. Many of the Northern California fires were started as a result of the lightning produced during a massive - and rare - summer thunderstorm.

The week leading up to the storm, I questioned the reliability of weather information as I had never experienced a severe summer storm in California. The night of the storm, I lay awake in my bed in awe of the sound of the storm. The combination of wind, rain, thunder and lighting produced incredibly loud sounds that lasted throughout the night. My family stayed snug in our beds. But when the storm continued into the morning hours, we decided to sit on our porch to take in the moment. The smell of rain in the summer was oddly refreshing. My kids were jumpy as none of them remember ever hearing thunder before. During a pause in the rain, we were walking between our home and my in-law’s home about 500 yards away from ours. The thunder hit at that very moment. I turned to look at my son and he was completely jumping out of his skin from fear of the thunder. Following each bout of thunder, silent lighting bolts shot across the sky. In the moment, we soaked in the beauty of nature. Little did we know that these beautiful bolts of lightning would cause some of the largest fires in California history.

Immediately following the storm, fires spread across the state of California. While COVID-19 has completely changed life as we know it, we have found joy in being able to enjoy the outdoors. At the onset of the fires, even that reprieve was taken from us. I live directly between the SCU Lightning Complex and the LNU Lighting Complex fires, two of the first fires that erupted following the storm. The days immediately following the start of the fires brought record breaking days of heat well over 100 degrees. The hottest I have ever experienced in the San Francisco Bay Area. The region experienced rolling blackouts and even functioning air conditioners were so taxed that they struggled to keep the insides of homes cool. In addition to the heat, the skies were filled with ash. The air was so thick with ash it was difficult to even take a breath when outside. The outdoors, our place of solace, quiet and escape during this pandemic, was no longer an option for us.

On September 9, 2020, I woke up and opened my curtains to face a brilliant orange sky. The color of the sky was unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. It truly felt apocalyptic. The air smelled of an extinguished campfire. And the overall feeling was eerie. The weight of the COVID-19 pandemic hit me the day that I stood beneath an orange sky, breathing in the smell of the fires ravaging my beloved state. How did we get here? Will life ever feel normal again? It just can’t get worse, can it? While I stood frozen in place, I heard the sound of birds chirping in the distance. This simple sound gave me the reassurance that I needed. We can do hard things. This too shall pass. I just hope it passes quickly.

Date (Dublin Core)

September 9, 2020

Creator (Dublin Core)

Story: Shanna Gagnon, Storm Videos: NBC Bay Area and KPIX CBS SF Bay Area, Orange Sky Video: Matt Stein

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Shanna Gagnon

Event Identifier (Dublin Core)

HST643

Partner (Dublin Core)

Arizona State University

Type (Dublin Core)

Story, Video

Link (Bibliographic Ontology)

NBC Bay Area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYtxKiajQ5A, KPIX CBS SF Bay Area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt8dWixWhCI

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Environment & Landscape
English News coverage
English Neighborhoods
English Home & Family Life

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

sensory history
wildfire
smoke
thunder
lightening
rain
San Francisco Bay Area
storm
orange sky
NBC
CBS
family
California

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

sensory history
San Francisco Bay Area
wildfires
thunder
lightening
weather
smoke
orange sky
heatwave
ash
apocalyptic

Collection (Dublin Core)

San Francisco Bay Area
Environment

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

Sensory history contribution to COVID-19 Archive
San Ramon Valley Unified School District Coronavirus News, Pre-School Closure

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

10/11/2020

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

10/12/2020

Item sets

Covid 19
Arizona State University

This item was submitted on October 11, 2020 by Shanna Gagnon using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://www.covid-19archive.org/s/archive

Click here to view the collected data.

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