Saturday, August 22, 2015

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 23 2015

SMOKE
Western/Central US and Southern:
An enormous area of smoke from the wildfires in California, Oregon,
Washington, Idaho and western Montana covers much of the western half
of the US and a portion of southern Canada from west of Lake Winnipeg
to Labrador and James Bay to the Great Lakes. The heaviest (moderately
dense to dense) smoke stretched from northern Oregon and Washington
across Idaho and Wyoming into Nebraska where it then curled to the north
into a strong cyclone over the northern Plains. The more dense smoke
extended across Minnesota and into the upper Great Lakes and Ontario,
finally reaching into Quebec. Moderate and dense smoke from the fires
in northwest California and the central Sierra Nevada covered northern
California and southwest Oregon. Some of the smoke that had dropped south
off the coast was now curving back to the east and moving inland over
the San Francisco Bay area and into the central Valley. Moderate to dense
smoke from the fires in the central Sierra covered much of the central and
southern portion of the range and extended into central Nevada and Utah.

DUST
Colorado:
An area of blowing dust was observed over southeast Colorado. The dust was
being kicked up by gusty northeast winds behind a frontal system which
was blowing the dust toward the southwest. The heaviest dust seemed to
be in a corridor from northeast to southwest through Lamar. Detection of
the full extent of the dust in this portion of the country was limited
due to the extensive smoke over the area.

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.