DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 12, 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: Southern Half of Canada/Much of the US with the exception of the Southern, Southeastern, and far Eastern portions of the nation... The ongoing major wildfire activity affecting portions of the Western US and especially Western Canada continues to produce copious amounts of smoke with an enormous area of varying density smoke blanketing virtually all of the southern half of Canada and much of the US with the exception of the region from a portion of Texas and New Mexico eastward to the Southeast US Coast and northward from there to Maine. Within this large mass of smoke, thicker density smoke extends from central and northern California and southern Oregon northeastward to Idaho and Montana. Much of this smoke was believed to be from the large wildfires burning in California, southwestern Oregon, as well as a few over central Idaho and southwestern Montana. Another patch of thicker smoke was present over western Colorado and eastern and central Utah which was mostly from wildfires in those regions. Strong winds appeared to fan wildfires burning in Washington state, northern Idaho, northwestern Montana, and the southern part of British Columbia resulting in a massive amount of thick density smoke which spread quickly to the north and northeast. The thicker smoke from these fires covered much of southern Canada from British Columbia eastward to southern Hudson Bay and Ontario. A swath of relatively thicker smoke was then transported southward across the western Great Lakes Region and particularly from Minnesota southward to just north of Kansas City. The low pressure system off the Pacific Northwest Coast which was responsible for the stronger winds inland also was causing some of the smoke from British Columbia to wrap back to the west and south offshore around the low circulation with a stripe of relatively thicker smoke then spreading to the east and northeast and back inland over western Washington including Seattle. Additional wildfires widely scattered over a broad region from northern British Columbia eastward to Manitoba and western Ontario were also contributing some to the huge area of smoke over Canada. BLOWING DUST: Caribbean Sea/Gulf of Mexico... An area of Saharan dust is seen extending from east of the Yucatan Peninsula over and into most of the Gulf of Mexico. The dust may extend inland slightly over Louisiana, Texas, and eastern Mexico though cloudiness in these areas makes that determination difficult. Another patch of Saharan dust was visible spreading to the west just south and east of Puerto Rico. 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