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It’s difficult to say whether it’s the eerily smoke-filled skies this week or the state of the Alberta economy that is making it so gloomy in Calgary.

The dark clouds — literally from forest fires in Washington state; and symbolically from depressed oil and gas prices — hanging over the city have redoubled the sense of anxiety that’s grown as job losses mount and a “lower-for-longer” outlook for commodity prices takes hold as companies budget for 2016.

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“This haze and smoke and gloom that’s hanging over the city is a bit of a metaphor for the economic state,” said Todd Hirsch, chief economist for ATB Financial.

The local lament is that Calgary has become Calgray.

The forest fires and a provincewide drought have only added to the pessimism.

The smoke will eventually clear but the outlook for the oil and gas industry that’s made Alberta the bright light in Canada’s economy for much of the past two decades is decidedly dimmer.