I rode today.
The sky was cloudy, a mix of our usual marine layer (low clouds and fog) and way up high, over the top of the marine layer, some smoke from the fires.
The air is cooled as it passes over the Pacific Ocean and being cold and dense, it hugs the ground. The warmer air inland rises up and sucks the cold, dense air in as it rises. This creates the on-shore flow. That flow pushes inland no matter what and it forces the smoke to go up high and over the top of the marine layer. The sun looked hazy and sickly yellow but the air at ground level smelled clean and smoke free.