DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 23, 2016

SMOKE:
California/Nevada:
Thin density smoke from several wildfires in south central California
covered virtually all of California and a good portion of Nevada along
with the eastern Pacific offshore of California. Moderately dense to
locally thick smoke was visible over central and south central California.

Area from the Pacific Northwest to the Central and Northern Plains and
south central Canada:
Numerous active wildfires burning eastern Washington, eastern Oregon,
Idaho, western Montana, and northwestern Wyoming were responsible for a
very large mass of smoke of varying density which stretched from eastern
Washington and eastern Oregon eastward to the Northern and Central Plains
reaching as far east as Minnesota and Wisconsin. The smoke then spread
northward into south central Canada wrapping around the eastern part of
a large low pressure.

Canada:
Wildfires located near and to the northwest of the Great Slave Lake in
northwestern Canada were emitting moderately dense to thick smoke which
moved to the northeast during the day.

DUST:
Oregon:
A swath of mainly thin density blowing dust originated from a point
source in west central Lake County of south central Oregon just prior
to 00Z and moved to the east and southeast continuing until sunset.

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/Products/land/hms.html
GIS:    http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm
KML:    http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO
SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov

Unless otherwise indicated:

Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.

Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.

A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.

Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.