DALLAS — Dallas woke up looking like Tatooine.
The sunrise was a hazy orange Friday morning, as it rose up over North Texas. The sunrise presented a cool visual, and a couple factors appeared to be the cause.
First, winds locally have been light winds over the past several days. Because of this relatively stagnant pattern, the ozone pollution that builds up hadn't been dispersed by sunrise, leading to hazy skies.
The other factor is the ongoing wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. Smoke from these areas is drifting into the central and southern plains. You can see that on this satellite loop.
And here's the latest smoke map, which shows how the smoke has dispersed across the U.S.
Also, while we tend to see Saharan Dust in North Texas this time of year, there's currently none here.
So chalk up the pretty sunrise to not-so-pretty reasons: Fires and pollution.
Meanwhile, North Texas was in for another scorcher of a weekend, with Friday temperatures expected to reach as high as 110.
North Texas hasn't seen any measurable rainfall since July 17, and there's none in the current 10-day forecast either.