DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 23, 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 RESPONSES TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov.
SMOKE:
Western and Central US/South Central and Eastern Canada...
An extremely large area of thin density smoke stretches from California
and Oregon eastward over northern Nevada, southern Idaho, and much of
Wyoming. The smoke then fans out as it moves to the east, northeast,
and southeast and covers a good portion of the Central US as well
as south central Canada. The smoke then narrows as it extends from
the Great Lakes region over central Ontario and central Quebec. The
western half(approximately) of this large mass of smoke is likely from a
combination of wildfires burning particularly in central and northwestern
Colorado, far northern Nevada, east central California, and southwestern
Oregon. The eastern half(approximately) of this smoke is mainly due to
the wildfires burning over south central and southeastern Canada. Closer
to some of the wildfires, the smoke density becomes much thicker. Thick
smoke was noted across southwestern and south central Oregon and far
northwestern Oregon from the wildfires over southwestern Oregon. Thick
smoke from the Ferguson Fire in east central California was seen over
the Central and Northern Sierras. Moderately dense to thick smoke from
the wildfire in far north central Nevada extended into south central
Idaho. Locally thicker smoke was also seen near wildfire activity in
west central Colorado and north central New Mexico. A larger detached
patch of moderately dense smoke likely from the Colorado wildfires was
visible moving southward over Oklahoma into north central Texas. Finally,
an area of thin to moderate density smoke was located over northeastern
Washington, northern Idaho, and western Montana as well as southern
British Columbia and southern Alberta. This smoke was due mostly to
wildfires in southern British Columbia.
Western, Northwestern, and North Central Canada...
A very large and significant area of smoke of varying density was
noted over the eastern Yukon and western and a good portion of British
Columbia, central Alberta, and especially from the Northwest Territories
to Nunavut just to the northwest of Hudson Bay. This smoke was believed
to be transported long range from fires in Russia/Asia.
DUST:
A large mass of Saharan dust continues to shift westward and is now
located from near and just south of Puerto Rico westward over and south
of Hispaniola, across the Caribbean but mainly south of Cuba, and over
the Yucatan Peninsula to the Bay of Campeche.
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