It isn't February, so it isn't the sun that is tricking you. I am in Salem and haven't noticed anything strange.

Didn't find any news of wildfires in Oregon/Washington but here's a site that might be useful in the future:
http://www.fsvisimages.com/cori1/cori1.html

From the US Forest Service/Gorge View

My wife called me at work and said the same thing, said our whole house was lit by a weird amber glow.

Same down here in West Linn, it felt like late November.

The haze is probably from a couple of fires that started in August, including the Rattle fire. In addition, there may have been some grass fires (believed to be arson-caused) in the Eugene area.

Yeah, I noticed the same thing. Right around 2 o'clock at my place the sky looked like dusk along the Oregon coast. Beautiful and golden but in the middle of the afternoon it's downright disconcerting. There's a great harvest moon out right now. Driving home from downtown along Vista I spotted several photographers trying to capture the moon and the cityscape from the bridge.

The moonrise over Portland was blood red, then a dark burnt orange, for several minutes. Something's burning.

Dave Salesky of Channel 8 just told me it was indeed smoke from the Rattle fire down south somewhere.

Play with this link: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm

Looking at the smoke analyzed from satellites, Portland was inundated with smoke from fires in northern and central California.

Very cool tool. Thanks.

Just an omen of the carnage that is to come as americans are led to slaughter by their rich foreign overlords.

*holds up fist in air*

I saw that Moon. It is the sight that puts goosebumps on my arms, (and, in the Full of the Moon, perhaps fur on my face ... as a general practice I avoid mirrors so I don't know certain things), and every time, Tom Waits's lyrics stick in mind, intractable: We'll put a new coat of paint / on this old warn out town / they'll keep settin 'em up, setting 'em up / we'll keep knocking 'em down / you wear a coat and I'll wear a tie / we'll laugh at that old bloodshot Moon in a burgundy sky.

While I'm on the subject of Moons and planets, let's all do astrology, shan't we? Saturn is coming on opposition to Uranus, and reaches exact aspect on Nov.4, election day.

... goes past, stops, 'retrogrades' and backs up, and is exact opposite again, on Feb. 4; then again, turning around, going 'direct' in forward motion, exact on Sept. 15 '09. (The optical phenomenon of planets as seen from Earth appearing to move forward, and back up, and move forward, and back, is what took so many wrong guesses and such a long time (5000? years) for observers to correctly explain.) So already, 2 months before exact Saturn -oppo- Uranus, we witness some 'effects' in the present, presaging the event -- as the Moon came Full alongside (conjunct) Uranus while the Sun is now (conjunct) in line with Saturn, so Sun-Moon in-line 'amplifies' (yesterday) the Saturn-Uranus undertone -- and we see the financial 'industry' shocked and shaken in its foundations.

So it goes in these next 12 months. For instance, for the election: It's the economy, stupid.

In 'interpretation' choose a word from Column A and a word from Column B and put the 'preposition' opposite between them; vary the synonyms in both their noun and verb forms.

Column A. Saturn signifies: structure, tradition, convention, conservative, limit, 'barrier,' rigid, stone, bone, skeleton, cold and dry. Also, Chronos, (or 'Father Time'), the Grim Reaper, aging, mortality.

Column B. Uranus signifies: lightning bolt, radiowaves (broadcast), electricity, shock, accident, eccentricity, unprecented, unexpected, revolution, rebellion, goosebumps, hair standing on end, static electricity.

So, for example, I look at such lists and predict thus: Freakish subzero cold weather this winter, esp. around Feb 4. Or also: Shock-collapse and revolution in economic 'conservative' traditions, i.e., the abolition of the 'dollar bill.' Also: prison riots and reform. Also: war crimes trials and Mortal Time sentences ajudicated under International Law and a World Tribunal.

Some degree of practice at it gains a certain skill and refinement, in the technique. But anyone can start, and play the game, to discover and improve on innate talent or aptitude. Go ahead, you try it. Compose 2-word 'synonym statements' and call them your predictions.

The highest 'batting average' for predictions is by saying you foresee in the future more of the same of what is going on presently around us, then extended. A large assistance in this is by being informed of what is going on presently around us. A large assistance in being informed is by talking to people.

And, it helps to review History. The Saturn-Uranus opposition, March'08 to Dec '09, occurred a prior time in 1965-67, and the time before that in 1918-20. Only 3 times in a hundred years; or, once every 43 years, (approx.) If we consider the Russian 'revolution' in 1918 and the 'Conventional wisdom' psychedelicized in 1965, we might expect a lightning-bolt leap forward in the 'Progressive' Movement, 2009; (n.b.: many synonyms for Progressive). Or maybe, merely, the cold polar ice caps evaporate ... that'd be a shocker! Unprecedented.

I've been an amateur astronomer for 35 years and use a telescope on the Canaries ( www.myslooh.com/zarathustra ) and when I saw the moon on the 15 and 16th I said I had never seen a moon that orange, save during an eclipse. Last night the sunset looked identical to what is common in India, but I have never seen one like that here. If you look at the flag of Bangladesh, that huge red circle in the middle is a stylization of the sunset we had last night.

Anyway, long winded way of saying "unique". I haven't heard anything unique about the situation yet, so any more theories? Maybe start with why it's common in the subcontinent...