DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2000Z July 26, 2018.
NESDIS IS INVESTIGATING THE UTILITY OF THIS TEXT NARRATIVE. IF YOU FIND
THIS PRODUCT VALUABLE, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL RESPONSE TO THE FOLLOWING
ADDRESS INDICATING HOW YOU AND/OR YOUR AGENCY USE THE INFORMATION.
THANK YOU. SEND EMAIL RESPONSES TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov.
SMOKE:
Eastern Alaska/Canada/North Central US/Appalachian Region...
The enormous mass of smoke which has been present for several days
continued to be visible stretching from eastern Alaska and western
Canada eastward across virtually all of Canada to off the southern tip
of Greenland. The thinner density portion of this smoke also covered
the northern tier of the US from northern Idaho and Montana to the
Great Lakes Region with a narrow swath of thinner density smoke also
extending southward from western Pennsylvania/eastern Ohio to the southern
Appalachians. Thicker embedded areas of smoke were noted over portions of
central and western Canada. Cloudiness over some of Alaska interfered with
smoke detection in that region. The source for this smoke was believed
to be long range transport from wildfire activity over Europe and Asia
though some contribution from wildfires over Alaska and northwestern
Canada is also likely.
Western US...
The Valley Fire in southern California, Ferguson Fire in central
California, and the Carr Fire in northern California along with the
cluster of fires in southwestern Oregon were responsible for widespread
smoke coverage over much of California, the northern half of Nevada,
and the southern half of Oregon, The leading edge of the thinner density
discernible smoke in satellite imagery spread at least as far east as
southern Idaho and northern Utah. There is the possibility that it also
extended across Wyoming and Colorado to the Central Plains but detection
was difficult in satellite imagery. The thickest smoke was located
closer to the more active fires though a sizable batch of moderately
dense smoke covered a portion of California and northwestern Nevada as
well as southwestern Oregon.
DUST:
A large area of Saharan dust extended from near and to the east and south
of Puerto Rico westward over the Caribbean to the Yucatan Peninsula,
the south central and western Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of Campeche,
and over Mexico.
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