It was sunny in Maine on Wednesday, but it was a little hard to tell.

Plumes from record-breaking and deadly fires burning on the West Coast have been picked up by the atmospheric jet stream and carried across the United States. In Maine, that smoke has left the sky hazy and created some unusually colorful sunrises and sunsets.

But it is not expected to cause any air quality issues at ground level.

The smoke from the West Coast comes as Maine is also at higher risk of wildfires because of dry and breezy conditions. Mainers were being warned Wednesday to take extra precautions to avoid igniting wildfires here.

Dry conditions during spring and summer – Maine is now officially in the midst of a statewide drought – have contributed to 941 wildfires in the state so far this year, the first time since 2001 Maine has had more than 900.

Here is a model depiction of smoke transport from the wildfires in the West. Darker colors indicate more smoke with this model showing higher amounts of smoke over New England this afternoon and evening, likely making for a colorful sunset. #MEwx #NHwx pic.twitter.com/a4BTLQQJvW

— NWS Gray (@NWSGray) September 16, 2020

Smoke from the fires that have burned millions of acres in California, Washington state and Oregon has been seen as far away as the Netherlands and Hamburg, Germany, the Associated Press reported. Data collected by the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service found smoke from the fires had traveled almost 5,000 miles through the atmosphere to Britain and other parts of northern Europe.

In Maine, the familiar bright blue midday sky has been less blue and less bright, and the haze has been even more visible around sunrise and sunset.

“It’s all visual. It’s just going to make the sky look different,” said meteorologist William Watson with the National Weather Service in Gray. “There isn’t really an effect other than that because it’s so high up in the atmosphere.”

This is not the first time smoke from West Coast wildfires has made it to Maine. Watson said the same thing happened for a day or two in 2018 when there were large wildfires in California.

“Unfortunately, it hasn’t been terribly uncommon in the past two or three years,” he said.

People in California, Oregon and Washington state have struggled for more than a week with some of the most unhealthy air on the planet because of the raging wildfires. Scientists predict the acrid yellow-green smog may linger in those areas for weeks. The air was so thick that one airline stopped flights to Portland, Oregon, and Spokane, Washington, earlier this week. Businesses have closed temporarily and residents can’t go outside for walks.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Index is considered hazardous at levels between 301 and 500. Values above 500 – which multiple Oregon cities have reported in the past week – are beyond the index’s scale.

The fires are also producing significant amounts of pollutants. NASA says satellite readings taken over the last week show high-altitude concentrations of carbon monoxide that are more than 10 times the norm.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s daily air quality forecast shows low levels of ground-level ozone and particulate pollution across the entire state, indicating there are so far no general health concerns here from the high-level smoke. But the department did release a special status note about the potential impacts.

“Smoke is forecast to remain overhead today. It is expected to remain aloft. However, what we have seen in the past is that random ‘bubbles’ of smoke may reach the ground in a location for an hour or two. If you smell smoke please reduce your level and duration of exertion,” the note said.

Portland Head Light appears against a hazy sky from Southern Maine Community College on Wednesday. Smoke from the Western wildfires has arrived in Maine, creating a haze that resembles overcast skies. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The haze could lift as a surface-level cold front sweeps through Maine on Thursday, but that may not be the end of it.

“It looks like there is still smoke being generated from out West, so it will continue to be carried across the country,” Watson said. “Tomorrow may clear it up some for Friday and into the first part of the weekend, but there’s a good chance there could be another surge of it this weekend.”

While Mainers won’t need to take any precautions from the smoke, they may want to keep an eye out for vivid sunrises and sunsets. They tend to look more pink, orange and red when smoke is in the air because light is refracting a little differently than normal, Watson said.

“Take some good pictures, that would be my suggested action,” he said.

Unrelated to the West Coast fires, the weather service in Maine issued a special weather statement Wednesday about the elevated fire risk in Maine and urged people to take extra precautions to prevent wildfires.

The weather service says a very dry air mass and breezy conditions will combine with dead and dry fuels such as grass, leaves and twigs to create the potential for uncontrolled fire spread across western Maine and most of New Hampshire. Maine and the Northeast have experienced dry conditions throughout the summer.

The Maine Forest Service said in late June that there had already been 712 wildfires in Maine this year, the second-highest total in the past decade. As of this week, there have been 941 wildfires across the state that covered more than 978 acres.

In 2001 there were 990 reported wildfires in Maine.

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