The sky above the Bay Area remained almost as dark as night even as the sun rose early Wednesday morning, and forecasters say true daylight probably will remain a rumor for a while.

“It’s overcast with smoke over the entire state right now,” National Weather Service meteorologist Drew Peterson said. “It’s just a complete smoke-out.”

The smoke-out is “unprecedented,” according to the weather service, with smoke so heavy that satellite image views posted on the agency’s Twitter account could not pick up fog or the marine layer that has helped to cool off the region following a weekend heat wave.

The marine layer was relatively thick Wednesday morning, and that fog laying between the smoke and the ground helped create an ominous red/orange glow to the sun and varying shades to the sky. In the Peninsula area, the sky had a yellow glow, while it appeared to be a mixture of orange and brown in Concord and orange and gold in San Jose.

Official air quality readings were low overnight, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The readings remained that way through 8 a.m.

The district’s air readings of fine particulate matter throughout the region were mostly between 51-100, considered moderately healthy. A handful of areas showing good air, though many Bay Area residents reported via social media that ash was falling.

The fine particulate matter measured above 150 — unhealthy for all — in Pleasanton, Concord and Napa throughout Tuesday, and it was unhealthy for those with breathing or other underlying issues in Vallejo, San Jose, Gilroy, Redwood City and Livermore.

Wild fires that have exploded in the Fresno County and Plumas and Butte counties “are putting out a ton of smoke, and the fog layer is between us and the smoke. That’s why you’re seeing an orange glow,” air quality district spokeswoman Tina Landis said. “But that’s also keeping the air quality levels lower to the ground at a low level.”

As the fog layer begins to break up as the day progresses, a little more light will creep through and the fine particulate matter is expected to increase, she said.

“Right now, the bigger chunks of ash are able to penetrate the fog and fall to the ground,” Landis said. “But those big chunks, your body is able to keep out of its system. It’s the fine matter that can get in there, and that’s going to go up as the fog layer burns off.

The temperatures are expected to keep cooling off Wednesday, Peterson said, and may be even cooler than originally forecast because of the smoke.

“The smoke is more or less in control of the forecast,” he said. “By that, I mean that the forecast models are probably going to be wrong. It’s probably going to be much cooler than we’re forecasting. How much cooler, we don’t know.”

Temperatures in the inland East Bay and in the Almaden Valley area of San Jose were expected to top out in the upper 80s, and morning temperatures unofficially were in the low 60s early Wednesday, Peterson said. On the coast, in San Francisco and Monterey, the thermometer is not expected to get past 69 degrees.

Still, the relief from the heat won’t bring any immediate relief from the smoke, Peterson said. A Spare the Air remains in effect through Wednesday; there has not been a day without one since Aug. 17.

“We just have so many fires right now, it won’t matter which way the wind is blowing,” he said. “We’re just going to have to take this day by day.”