{"id":419407,"date":"2026-07-31T12:32:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419407\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:32:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:32:26","slug":"a-hellish-cloud-descended-on-los-angeles-in-1943","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419407\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u201cHellish Cloud\u201d Descended on Los Angeles in 1943"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week marks the 83rd anniversary of the first major smog incident in Los Angeles, when reports described<\/a> a \u201chellish cloud\u201d of pollution descending on the city. There had been complaints about industrial smoke in the area for a decade prior, but it took some time for L.A. authorities to work out why the problem was getting worse.<\/p>\n

The big new contributor was one we\u2019re all now well familiar with: automobile exhaust.<\/p>\n

In the midst of a heat wave, the 1943 smog suffocation of L.A. seriously reduced visibility and led to burning eyes and throats. In fact, with World War II still raging, there was some initial concern that the city was under a chemical warfare attack.<\/p>\n

While conditions have improved since that summer nearly a century ago, the smog problem hasn\u2019t entirely gone away\u2014and there\u2019s a trail of photo evidence showing how it\u2019s affected Angelenos over the years.<\/p>\n

Read more: \u201cLos Angeles Should Be Buried<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"SETTLED SMOG: A smoggy L.A. skyline, viewed from Mulholland Drive looking out on the 101 Freeway toward downtown, in 1984. Credit: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"SMOG WALK: The view from the sidewalk on a smog-filled day in 1953. Credit: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"CLEAR THE AIR: An experimental smog-control device being tested on a smokestack in 1948. Credit: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"SMOGGY CITY: The L.A. Civic Center shrouded by \u201ceye-smarting\u201d smog in 1948. Credit: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"VOLTS-WAGON: An electric-powered L.A. Department of Water and Power truck driving down the street on a smoggy day in 1967. Credit: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"NOT SO PARK-ISH PARKWAY: Looking down from the hills of Arroyo Seco Parkway at the L.A. City Hall and Civic Center surrounded by smog in 1948. Credit: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"HELPING HANDS: Boy Scout Jeffrey La France helps Nancy Rayder, 11, dry her eyes during a four-hour smog alert in Reseda. Credit: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"SHROUDED IN SMOG: Century City towers appearing through the smog with the Santa Monica Mountains in the background, in 1980. Credit: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"UNDERCOVER: Some Angelenos, like this Manhattan Beach resident, built their own \u201csmog-alert\u201d chambers. Credit: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives, UCLA Library Special Collections.\"\"HIDDEN CITY: Downtown high-rise buildings surrounded by blanket smog in 1973. Credit: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives, UCLA Library Special Collections.<\/p>\n

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Lead image: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives, UCLA Library Special Collections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week marks the 83rd anniversary of the first major smog incident in Los Angeles, when reports described…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-419407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}