Monday, August 17, 2015

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z August 18, 2015

SMOKE:
Western US/Plains/Southern Canada/Mississippi Valley/Upper Great
Lakes/Ohio Valley:
Numerous wildfires burning across the Pacific Northwest and California
are producing tremendous amounts of smoke over a large section of
western/central US.  Moderately dense to dense smoke is seen across
sections of northern California, covering most of Oregon, northern
Nevada, central/eastern Washington, Idaho, western Montana, northwest
Wyoming and western North Dakota and South Dakota.  The heaviest smoke
is located over northwest California, northern Oregon, central/eastern
Washington and into parts of northern Idaho.  Lighter smoke spreads as
far east as Minnesota, as far north as southern Alberta/Saskatchewan
and as far south as northeast Kansas.   Another area of residual smoke
from the wildfires out west is seen over parts of the Southern Plains,
spreading northeast across Texas, eastern/central Oklahoma, northeast
Arkansas, southeast Kansas, most of Missouri, Illinois, western Indiana
and up to northern Michigan.

Mid Atlantic and Northeast US/ far Eastern Canada/Atlantic
A large area of residual light smoke is seen as far south as Delaware
and extending north across the northeast into New Hampshire, Mass,
Conn, RI, Maine and north into eastern Quebec and far north as
Labrador/Newfoundland.

Southeast California:
A large wildfire burning in east central Fresno county is producing
a large area of moderately dense to very dense smoke across several
counties.  Smoke is seen in Tulare and Inyo counties in California and
spreading east into the counties of Nye, Clark and Lincoln in southern
Nevada.

J Kibler

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.