Friday, July 27, 2018

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1802Z July 27, 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:
Eastern Alaska/Canada/North Central US/Appalachian Region...
The enormous mass of smoke which has been present for several days
continued to be visible stretching from eastern Alaska and western
Canada eastward across virtually all of Canada to off the southern tip
of Greenland. The thinner density portion of this smoke also covered
approximately the northern half of the US extending as far east as New
York and the Middle Atlantic region. Thicker embedded areas of smoke
were noted over most of Canada.

Western US...
The Valley Fire in southern California, Ferguson Fire in central
California, and the Carr Fire in northern California along with the
cluster of fires in southwestern Oregon were responsible for widespread
significant density smoke coverage over much of California, northwestern
Nevada, and the southern half of Oregon. The heavy density smoke plumes
from the fires in southern Oregon were moving southwest into the Pacific
Ocean. The thick plume from the Valley Fire extended over southern Nevada
(including Las Vegas) and as far as northwest Oklahoma. The leading
portion of smoke from these fires and other wildfires burning over the
Western US appeared to stretch eastward over the Rockies where it merged
with the smoke described in the paragraph above.

DUST:
A large area of Saharan dust extended from near and to the east and south
of Puerto Rico westward over the Caribbean to the Yucatan Peninsula,
the south central and western Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of Campeche,
and over Mexico.

Rodriguez


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.