GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
The past few years, we've been under the same circumstances.
Shasta County (the Redding area in particular) is surrounded on three sides by the Klamath, Cascade and Sierra mountains at the north end of the central valley, which means fire smoke (especially during an inversion layer condition), gets wicked.
This photo is driving into Redding about a year ago. What you *should* see, is the downtown part of Redding (a mile away) and mountains rising beyond that distant tree line at the edge of the horizon.
This was taken at 12 noon, by the way.