What it looks like on Mars

We have been having some very weird skies lately. The massive Wallow Creek fire, burning just over the border of New Mexico in Arizona. Depending on the wind patterns, we have been getting air quality that ranges from "nice campfire smell" to "eye burning hell". Check out this satellite image that shows the extent of the fire and the plume going straight over ABQ, and some other snap shots of the haze (here and here). When the smoke gets really bad we need to turn off the swamp cooler (which keeps us nice and cool in our arid air) to keep the smoke out. That is not particularly pleasant but we are managing. Hopefully they get the fire under control soon, but it is not looking promising. The only bright side to this is we have been having spectular sunrises and sunsets, as well as some really creepy effects when the haze gets really bad. The other night it looked like we were living on Mars, with a sickly red-yellow light that lingered long past sunset.