DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z August 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:
Canada/U.S...
Smoke of varying density from ongoing wildfire activity scattered across
portions of the Western U.S. and South Central and Western Canada was
visible covering much of Canada and a good portion of the U.S. The smoke
also extended well off the coast of Southeastern Canada and off the
Northeastern U.S. and Middle Atlantic Region out over the Atlantic. Only
a portion of the Southwestern U.S., South Central U.S. and Southeastern
U.S. was believed to be relatively free of smoke. Within the larger
area of smoke, moderately dense smoke was present from east of Hudson
Bay to out over the Atlantic. More moderate density smoke was located
over South Central Canada from central and southern Alberta to near the
Ontario-Quebec border and over the North Central U.S. from eastern Idaho,
Montana, and Wyoming eastward to the Eastern Great Lakes Region. Thick
smoke was noted in a few areas including over central and southern Oregon,
northern California, northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho, and northern
Utah from more active wildfires in this region. A thick smoke plume
from a growing wildfire in southeastern Wyoming spread quickly to the
east-northeast reaching into south central South Dakota and north central
Nebraska by sunset. In Canada, thick smoke was visible over southeastern
Alberta and southwestern Manitoba, across far northern Saskatchewan, far
northern Manitoba, and the southeast part of the Northwest Territories
and part of Nunavut to the west and northwest of Hudson Bay. Other patches
of thicker smoke were present over southwestern and northwestern British
Columbia from ongoing wildfires in those regions. Cloudiness over the
Northwestern U.S. and portions of Canada did interfere with additional
more specific smoke information from satellite imagery.
DUST:
Western Oklahoma/Southwestern Kansas...
A narrow stripe of blowing dust emanating from a point source in northern
Beaver County in the western Oklahoma panhandle moved to the north during
the afternoon and early evening into southwestern Kansas.
Southern California...
An area of aerosol across the interior portion of southern California
was visible spreading to the east during the late afternoon and evening
just prior to sunset. Gusty west and southwesterly winds were present so
it is likely that at least some of this aerosol was composed of blowing
dust though leftover thin density smoke from fires farther north in
California and other atmospheric pollutants are also possibly mixed in.
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