Thursday, August 25, 2016

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 26, 2016

SMOKE:
Pacific Northwest/North Central US/Far South Central Canada:
Remnant thin to moderately dense patches of smoke originating from
wildfires in the northern portions of the Intermountain West, Oregon, and
Washington is seen across parts of Idaho/Oregon/Washington/Montana/Wyoming
and out across the Northern Plains/Great Lakes region also entering far
southern Canada. Numerous wildfires in the Pacific Northwest continue to
emit light to heavy density smoke.  The fire in the Olympic National
park was producing light to heavy density smoke to the southwest.
Fires in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana are fanning smoke to the south
and east while fires in northwest Wyoming are emitting smoke which is
traveling to the east.

Southwest US:
Thin to moderately dense residual smoke covers a portion of southern
California, far southern Nevada, western Arizona and northwest Mexico
stretching in different directions away from the Cedar Fire in south
California. This residual smoke is obscured by cloud cover over the
Four Corner states which prevented the ability to determine the eastward
extent of this area of residual smoke. Multiple light to heavy density
smoke plumes were seen along the southwestern coast of California and
in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains with smoke mostly fanning out
to the east.

DUST:
Midwest:
An area of aerosol that is thought to be elevated dust stretches from
northeast Oklahoma/southeast Kansas to Illinois and northern Indiana
this afternoon/evening in GOES-E imagery. This dust may be from the
southwest US.

-Cronin/Sheffler

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.