You called it, winter gloom.
I've always been ok with winter, prefer it over our super hot summers, but this year it's been more gloomy than I can ever recall. Usually we get the typical winter weather but 60% of winter is clear blue skies (cold still though) but we've not had anywhere near that this year.
Add in all the other stuff and I'm left feeling a bit wobbly.
We have a lot of wild fires down here and for sure the smoke can be difficult to deal with at times. We've not had a really terrible one since late 2019 early 2020 which was rather devastating across several States and a lot of lives, forest and structures were lost. Some are still not rebuilt due to insurance bureaucracy. Hopefully things improve up your way.
RE: Pale and washed out