Tuesday, August 21, 2018

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 22, 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:
Southern Half of Canada/Much of the US...
Significant wildfire activity scattered across the Western US from central
and northern California and northern Nevada northward across portions of
Idaho, western Montana, and the Pacific Northwest as well as a massive
wildfire outbreak occurring  in western Canada and primarily in British
Columbia continued to be responsible for widespread coverage of smoke
of varying density affecting most of the southern half of Canada as
well as much of the U.S. Only small portions of the Southwestern U.S.,
southern Texas, and the far eastern U.S. as well as southeastern Canada
were relatively smoke free at least as far as what was seen in visible
satellite imagery. The most significant smoke of moderate to thick density
affecting the US blanketed the northwestern portion of the US from western
Montana, western Wyoming, and northwestern Utah westward to the portion
of the West Coast from central California to northwestern Washington. The
smoke also extended offshore of California, Oregon, and Washington over
a portion of the nearby eastern Pacific. Relatively narrow swaths of
moderate density smoke extended eastward from Montana and Wyoming to the
North Central US and western Great Lakes Region and from the Southern
Plains to the central Gulf Coast Region. Over Canada, thicker smoke
covered much of British Columbia as well as the far southeastern part
of the Yukon, the far southern Northwest Territories, extreme southern
Nunavut, as well as portions of northern and central Alberta, northern
and central Saskatchewan, and northern and central Manitoba.

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

 


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.