DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z August 18, 2020
SMOKE:
Large Area Covering the Western, South Central, and Southeastern
U.S. along with the Northern Gulf of Mexico, Northern Mexico, and the
Eastern Pacific…
A very large mass of smoke of varying density linked to the wildfires
burning in the Western U.S. was visible this morning covering virtually
all of the Western U.S. with the thinner density smoke across the South
Central and Southeastern U.S. Thinner density smoke was also present over
the northern Gulf of Mexico and northern Mexico while thin to moderate
density smoke was along and off the west coast of Baja and California over
the Pacific. Inland over the West, moderately dense to thick smoke from
the wildfires burning in California could be seen over much of central
and northern California with a narrow band stretching over northwestern
Nevada, southeastern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho. Additional areas of
moderate density smoke primarily from the Cub Lake Fire in southwestern
Montana and a wildfire in north central Wyoming to the northeast of
Sheridan were visible over southern Montana, northern and central Wyoming,
and extending out into western South Dakota and western Nebraska. Another
patch of moderately dense to thick smoke mainly from the 4 large wildfires
burning in Colorado was present over southeastern Utah, northeastern
Arizona, and sizable portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Finally, a patch
of leftover thin to moderately dense smoke was seen over southeastern
Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan which is likely from fire activity
either in southwestern Canada and/or the Northwester U.S.
Alaska…
A large area of leftover thin density smoke likely attributed to the
wildfires burning in Siberia was seen this morning over western and
northern Alaska and extending over a portion of the Arctic Ocean and
Bering Sea.
DUST:
Tropical Atlantic...
Saharan dust was visible stretching from a portion of the western
African coast westward over the southeastern subtropical portion of the
Atlantic. Additional Saharan dust was seen farther to the west over
Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the eastern Caribbean, and in a south-north
elongated band over a swath of the Atlantic to the north of this region.
JS
THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF
SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED
FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE.
TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE
ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE
AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE
FIRE IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE:
JPEG: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS: ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO:
SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov