Thursday, June 21, 2018

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE
IMAGERY THROUGH 0315 UTC, June 22, 2018.

NESDIS IS INVESTIGATING THE UTILITY OF THIS TEXT NARRATIVE. IF YOU FIND
THIS PRODUCT VALUABLE, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL RESPONSE TO THE FOLLOWING
ADDRESS INDICATING HOW YOU AND/OR YOUR AGENCY USE THE INFORMATION. THANK
YOU. SEND EMAIL RESPONSE TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov.

SMOKE:
Central Canada/North Central and Northeastern US...
A large mass of thin density smoke attributed to wildfires over
Central and South Central Canada was visible covering the northern
half of Saskatchewan, much of Manitoba, and the central and western
portion of Ontario. Within this region, patches of moderate to thick
density smoke were also seen especially over east-central Saskatchewan,
central Manitoba, and western Ontario. Some of the thin density smoke
also appeared to extend southward across northern Minnesota and Lake
Superior. A separate detached narrow swath of leftover very thin smoke
from the Canadian fires was visible stretching from northern lower
Michigan across a portion of the Northeast.

Southwestern US...
The Trail Mountain Fire in central Utah was mostly responsible for a
extensive thin density smoke which covered eastern Utah, western and
central Colorado, much of New Mexico, and western Texas. Thick smoke
from this fire spread eastward during the day over northeastern Utah
into northwestern and central Colorado. Other fire activity over west
central New Mexico including the long standing Buzzard fire was also
contributing to the smoke especially over New Mexico with moderately
dense to thick smoke confined to an area closer to those fires.

Oregon...
Several fires over north central Oregon produced moderately dense to thick
smoke which moved to the east during the afternoon and early evening
with the leading edge of the thinner density smoke nearly reaching the
Oregon-Idaho border by sunset.

Western Canada...
Wildfires in central and northern British Columbia as well as the
southwest part of the Northwest Territories were seen in between breaks
in the clouds but no smoke was visible in satellite imagery due to the
extensive cloud cover.

JS


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/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS:    ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML:    http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
        http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)
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.