Millions of Americas affected by wildfire smoke are focusing on the colors red, purple and maroon on the Air Quality Index charts. Red used to be the scariest color. Why did that change?

Everyone knows that red means danger, but how did purple become a cautionary color? At an EPA conference in the late 1990s, attendees nearly came to blows over color coding on the Air Quality Index.

As wildfire smoke from Canada descends on the northeastern U.S., many Americans are getting local alerts from the Environmental Protection Agency’s AQI. Here’s what all those colors mean.

Wildfire smoke from Canada helped give the sun and moon a red-orange tint overnight into Tuesday, Mike Bettes, a Weather Channel meteorologist, told CBS News, noting that they appeared red in ...

According to the National Forest Service, the red smoke is a mix of fire retardant chemicals used to safely contain wildfire flames. The exact chemical makeup of the fire retardant varies, but the ...

During the summer when wildfire smoke takes over the skies, you’ll often notice the dreary haze during the day. But at night, the sun seems to display extra vibrant colors, making for ...

Smoke particles also scatter light, and because they are larger than air molecules, they also scatter the orange and red colors. That results in far more red and orange in the sky than we are used ...

The world’s color authority has spoken, and this year, the smoke that wafted up from the Pantone conclave was tinged a deep, pinkish red: All hail Viva Magenta, Pantone’s 2023 color of the year.