DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z August 25, 2020
SMOKE:
Much of the CONUS, south-central Canada, and northern Mexico...
A large smoke plume resulting from wildfires across the western CONUS
the past couple of weeks continues to blanket a considerable portion
of the CONUS, along with some portions of south-central Canada, far
southeastern Canada, and northern Mexico. The thickest smoke resides in
California’s Central Valley, emanating from the August Complex and
SQF Complex fires, and in a ribbon extending from northern California
across the Intermountain West, northern Great Plains, southern Prairie
Provinces, Midwest, Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast
CONUS, and the St. Lawrence River Valley. A southwestward extension
of this layer is seen from across the Front Range, Four Corners, and
northwestern Mexico. Smoke from fires in Colorado is contributing a
small amount of smoke as well. Smoke from the northern Great Plains
into the northeastern CONUS is moving east-southeast to east on a jet,
which is what brought the lofted smoke into those areas originally. The
rest of the smoke across the western half of North America will continue
to move clockwise around the ridge in place over the Rockies.
South-central CONUS…
A couple small fires from Texas to Arkansas were observed producing
moderate density smoke this morning. These smoke plumes were moving off
toward the west.
BLOWING DUST…
Central Tropical and Subtropical Atlantic…
Asurge of lofted Saharan dust was observed moving west-southwest. The
leading edge was as far west as about 50W while the heart of the surge
was seen extending from (10N, 35W) to (30N, 45W).
Hosley
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