DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z August 8, 2019
SMOKE:
Canada/North Central U.S...
A huge region of primarily thin density smoke was seen covering virtually
all of central and south central Canada as well as far northeastern
Canada though cloud cover did interfere with additional information
on the extent and density of the smoke. The smoke also spread to the
southeast over portions of the North Central U.S. including the Dakotas,
Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. This smoke was believed to be long range
transport from significant wildfires burning in Siberia-northern Russia
though it is possible that some leftover smoke from recent wildfire
activity during the past few weeks in northwestern Canada and Alaska
could still be lingering in the atmosphere. Also, there may be some smoke
contribution from wildfires burning in the Western U.S. especially over
the North Central U.S.
Area from the Northwestern U.S. to the North Central and Central U.S...
Wildfires burning in Washington, Oregon, western Montana, Idaho,
northern Nevada, and northern Utah were responsible for a broad area
of smoke which stretched from near the active wildfires in the Western
and Northwestern U.S. eastward across the North Central and Central
U.S. with the leading edge of the smoke likely reaching east of the
Mississippi River. Some of the smoke in the North Central U.S. may also
be due to long range transport from ongoing large wildfires burning in
Siberia-northern Russia. A swath of thicker smoke was seen mainly from
north central and eastern Washington across northern Idaho and Montana
to near the border of southeastern Montana-northwestern South Dakota.
Alaska...
Additional thin density smoke was visible spreading to the east over
the Bering Sea and into western and northwestern Alaska which is likely
remnant smoke from ongoing significant wildfire activity occurring in
portions of Siberia-northern Russia.
Western Canada...
A large wildfire complex in northwestern British Columbia was responsible
for a swath of moderately dense to thick smoke which affected the area
stretching from northwestern British Columbia to east central British
Columbia. Thinner density smoke surrounded the thicker smoke impacting
more of British Columbia with some of it likely moving into Alberta.
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