Most often, it looks orange outside because of how sunlight is being filtered by the atmosphere where you are.

Main reasons the sky looks orange

  • Sunrise or sunset: When the sun is low on the horizon, its light has to travel through much more atmosphere. Shorter blue wavelengths get scattered away, and the longer red and orange wavelengths dominate, so the sky and clouds can look orange.
  • Wildfire smoke: Smoke fills the air with tiny particles that filter out a lot of blue light and let more red and orange light through, giving everything an eerie orange or sepia tint even in the middle of the day.
  • Dust or sand in the air: Large amounts of dust (for example, from desert storms or dust blown in by a storm system) can similarly scatter light so that orange and yellow tones are what reach your eyes.
  • Heavy air pollution: Pollution aerosols can make sunsets dramatically more red and orange, and in extreme cases can tint daytime light as well.

A simple way to think about it

Anything that adds lots of tiny particles to the air (smoke, dust, pollution) or makes sunlight travel through more atmosphere (sunrise/sunset) will knock out a lot of the blue light and leave the warmer colors, so your surroundings look orange.

If it’s orange outside and the air smells smoky, looks hazy, or the sun looks dim or reddish, it could be from wildfire smoke or severe pollution, and local health agencies usually recommend limiting outdoor activity in those conditions.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.