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