“Pollution can really juice up a sunset.”
Atmosphere with Emily Gracey · September 2026
Hewitt was answering a question about whether poor air quality makes for better sunsets, and admitted he had nearly put pollution on his list of ingredients for a good one. He goes on to describe Seattle's wildfire-smoke days, when the sun turns an unnaturally bright red. He calls it a fine line: a little particulate in the air improves a sunset, too much makes it creepy.
Transcript
…since I was a kid. And I think it says, if God is not a Broncos fan, why are sunsets orange? So I think in Denver, they actually make it sort of, it's part of the football identity and the city identity, these beautiful bright orange sunsets. So I think Denver is another great place for sunsets.
Okay. I wonder if, does pollution help? You know, we talked about clouds. I wonder if like air quality, like poor air quality tends to actually make for some pretty cool sunsets.
Yeah. And I was thinking about this and I was listening, what are the best features for sunsets? And I, I kind of, unfortunately, I almost put that on the list because yeah, it is true. Pollution can really juice up a sunset. It can bring out more colors. It can bring out more of the oranges and the blue and the bright reds. You know, here in Seattle, we're one of the parts of the country where we're getting more and more wildfire smoke, especially in the late summer, like often in August, we have a couple of days where the air quality is not healthy. And boy, on those days, it's a different kind of sunset, though…
I've got one in the U.S. to add to your list that I love. It's where I live, Charleston, South Carolina. And I know it's on the East Coast, but hear me out. So we often, especially in the summer, get these afternoon thunderstorms, but they clear out by sunset. So there's a lot of clouds in the sky.…
Yeah, I think you're exactly right. And I think you just just also described a perfect recipe for a sunset. It's it's not a perfectly clear day. It's a cloudy day and the rain, you know, I've been in places like that where you get the afternoon kind of thunderstorm that cleans out the humidity.…
yeah,