This is why Los Angeles’ sunsets have been so dramatic

As puffy clouds that looked like flames covered the cotton-candy sky Wednesday night, Angelenos checked their Instagrams from a few days earlier – the ones that looked like Monet painted them with pastels – and had a bit of a freakout: Is this our best streak of sunsets ever?

Well, probably not, says weather specialist Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

But there is a reason they’ve been so cool. The combination of clouds, smoke and dust whirling around from strong winds gives the sun lots of extra things to reflect off, he said.

“It’s particles in the air,” Seto said. “It can create a filter, so at certain angles it can change the colors.”

People across the Southland took to Twitter this week to post sweet nothings about their skies.

“Los Angeles has been doing a lot of the epic sunset thing lately,” one man posted. Curbed LA chimed in Wednesday declaring it an “ALL-TIME TOP TEN SUNSET.”

But others poked fun at the melodrama, tweeting things like, “Prepare for a shower of sunset photos on your timelines. #LosAngeles” and “The Los Angeles Internet is all congratulations and sunset shots.”

While this string of sunsets has been pretty impressive, Seto said it’s probably not breaking any records.

“What’s between unusual and we do get them sometimes?” he said, laughing.

ALSO:

Reseda school bus crash: 1 student, 1 adult taken to hospital

O.C. high school students allegedly hack computers to change grades

L.A. Now Live: Pitfalls of private foster care endanger children

marisa.gerber@latimes.com