Friday, August 21, 2015

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 22, 2015

SMOKE:
Western/Central US and South Central Canada:
The prolific wildfires burning in the Western US are producing
a tremendous amount of smoke this afternoon and evening that covers
most of the western 2/3 of the country. Smoke from the wildfires in
Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana merges with the smoke from fires
in northern and central California as the smoke reaches and crosses the
northern and central Rockies and spreads eastward across the central
and northern Plains into the upper Mississippi Valley and the western
Great Lakes. A blanket of moderately dense to dense smoke stretched from
the fire source in northern Washington eastward across northern Idaho
and much of Montana across the Dakotas and Nebraska into Minnesota and
Wisconsin. A separate plume of moderately dense to dense smoke extended
from the fires in northern California and in the central Sierras eastward
across Nevada and northern Utah into southern Wyoming.

Northwest Montana:
An area of light smoke from fires in Siberia was seen over northeast
British Columbia north into Northwest Territories.

Gulf of Alaska:
An area of light smoke, also from the fires burning in Siberia, was seen
over the northern Gulf of Alaska.

DUST
Oregon:
A small plume of blowing dust was seen moving south from a dry lake bed
in southwest Oregon.

Southern California:
A narrow plume of blowing dust was seen moving north from near the mouth
of the Colorado River at the northern tip of the Gulf of California and
reaching the California border.

Washington:
It is possible that there is blowing dust across portions of central
Washington due to very strong and gusty winds. However, the thick smoke
from the fires precludes detection of any dust.


Ruminski


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.