DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 24, 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...
A batch of thick density smoke attributed to ongoing wildfire activity
over southwestern Oregon and a new wildfire in far western Shasta
County of northern California was present over far northern California,
as well as southwestern, south central, and central Oregon. Moderately
dense to thick smoke from the Ferguson Fire in east central California
spread northward during the day across east central and northeastern
California though cloud cover developed during the day limiting
additional information on the extent of the thicker smoke in satellite
imagery. Farther to the east, thick smoke from a new wildfire in west
central Idaho (near the border of Idaho and Adams counties) spread rapidly
to the east reaching southwestern Montana. In addition, a large leftover
area of thinner density smoke attributed to the wildfires mentioned
above and additional wildfires burning over southwestern Montana,
and northwestern Colorado and other parts of the West could be seen
stretching from Oregon and northern and central California eastward to
the Dakotas and Nebraska.
Great Lakes Region/Southeastern Canada...
A swath of varying density smoke stretched from east to west from eastern
Quebec to central Ontario. From there, the smoke then wrapped southward
around the western portion of a low pressure system into the western
Great Lakes region and as far south as central Illinois and central
Indiana. The thickest part of this area of smoke stretched from Lake
Superior southward over eastern Wisconsin to the vicinity of Chicago. The
smoke was believed to be leftover mainly from recent wildfire activity
over central and eastern Ontario and Quebec.
Northern, Western, and Southwestern Canada...
A very large area of varying density smoke was observed over a large part
of western and northern Canada extending as far east as the Labrador Sea
to the west of Greenland. The smoke also was being transported across
southwestern and south central Canada from southern British Columbia to
western Ontario where it the wrapped to the north around an area of low
pressure. This huge mass of smoke was believed to be long range transport
from fire activity in Russia/Asia.
DUST:
Saharan dust was again visible a bit farther to the west stretching from
mainly south of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola westward across the southern
part of the Caribbean and over the Yucatan Peninsula and southeastern
Mexico to the Bay of Campeche. The dust appeared to also extend as far
west as the eastern part of Mexico and possibly up into southern Texas.
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