DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z August 14, 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: Much of Canada and the CONUS... Wildfire activity from northern California into British Columbia, the Intermountain West, and the Four Corners region has contributed to an expansive smoke layer extending across the continent from the northeastern Pacific Ocean into the northern Atlantic and beyond. Moderately dense to thick smoke was observed moving out across the Pacific Ocean this afternoon from the aforementioned wildfire activity with offshore flow present from southern British Columbia and Puget Sound. The large swirl that was Hurricane John (centered near 28.1N, 120.5W - about 150 miles west-southwest of Guadalupe Island) last week is also helping to drag smoke off the California shoreline south and west into the Pacific Elsewhere, east-northeasterly flow is dragging smoke from northern California, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana across the Intermountain West across southern Manitoba, southeastern Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, the Great Lakes, Ontario, southern Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces. an anticyclone over the Great Basin, as well as two cyclones (one situated over western Kansas/Oklahoma and the other over the Appalachians/mid-Atlantic), are drawing sizable portions of this smoke south over the Four Corners, the Front Range, the northern Texas Panhandle, much of the northern and central Mississippi Valley, the Tennessee Valley, and into the southeastern CONUS and mid-Atlantic. The most dense smoke was observed across southern British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest, northern California, the Great Lakes, southern Ontario/Quebec, and a linear region extending from Des Moines, IA to Atlanta, GA. Moderately dense smoke surrounds and connects these areas, while also existing across northern British Columbia, much of Alberta, and the southern Northwest Territory. A few fires across southern Northwest Territory and far northern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan had discrete light to moderate density smoke plumes extending to the east-northeast of the parent wildfires. BLOWING DUST: Caribbean Sea/Gulf of Mexico... An area of Saharan dust extended over much of the Caribbean and western Gulf of Mexico, extending inland across eastern Texas, Louisiana, and southern Arkansas. Hosley 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