DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z April 20, 2015
Southwest/Central US: medium to heavy dense smoke continues to blanket an area from southern Washington into northern California and western Idaho. Light smoke extends southwest across the Four Corners region, across northern Texas and into central Oklahoma and central Kansas. This remnant smoke originated from Asia and has been traveling across the Pacific into the Pacific NW the last 48 hours. Liddick From earlier: SMOKE: Western Gulf of Mexico: A large area of medium-density smoke is visible in satellite imagery moving northward extending from the Yucatan Peninsula west towards the border of Mexico and Texas. This smoke originates from the dense agricultural burning that has been taking place there as well as oil exploration in the Bay of Campeche. Texas: A plume of light-density smoke is visible moving SE from the Mexico-Texas border up to the Oklahoma border. This smoke is remnant from the day before and most likely originates from the smoke traveling north from the Mexican agricultural burns. Northern Plains: A large plume of light-density smoke is visible moving SW from Canada down into the United States. Areas affected include: Saskatchewan, Alberta, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska. This remnant smoke originated from Asia and has been traveling across the Pacific into the Pacific NW the last 48 hours. Pacific Northwest: A large plume of light to medium-density smoke is visible in satellite imagery this morning moving east from the Pacific Ocean and making landfall in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and entering Idaho. The more dense concentrations are seen in southern Washington and northern Oregon. This remnant smoke originated from Asia and has been traveling across the Pacific into the Pacific NW the last 48 hours. Oegerle/Kemal Earlier This Morning... Pacific Northwest/Canada: A relatively expansive plume of smoke is capture in morning visible satellite imagery extending from southern Saskatchewan across central Montana, northern two-thirds of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and northern California. This area of smoke (with a low probability of dust/sand mixed in) has been traced back to numerous large wildfires burning across Siberia. These fires produced pyrocumulus clouds that enabled the smoke to rise quickly and become entrained in the atmospheric jet stream. The first plume of smoke that has been since transported across the northern Pacific and is now located over the Pacific Northwest and southwestern to south-central Canada. Additional large detached smoke plumes were seen yesterday beginning to follow the same trajectory. A blog from NASA provides an excellent track of the history of this event (ozoneaq.gsfc.nasa.gov/omps/blog). Warren 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