DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z August 9, 2019
SMOKE:
Area from the Northwestern U.S. to the Great Lakes Region and Ohio
Valley Region/Canada...
A very large area of smoke of varying density was visible during the day
which encompassed the Northwestern, North Central, Central, and East
Central U.S. from Washington and Oregon eastward to the Northern and
Central Plains, Great Lakes Region, and Ohio Valley Region. Much of the
smoke east of the Dakotas was thin in density while significantly thicker
smoke was present stretching from eastern Washington across Montana,
and over the Dakotas Thicker smoke also reached north of the border into
far southeastern British Columbia and southern Alberta. Thinner density
smoke was also seen over a broad part of Canada with Quebec Province the
only area in Canada which was relatively smoke free. The source for the
thicker smoke in the Northwestern and North Central U.S. and Southwestern
Canada was wildfire activity in Washington, northeastern Oregon, western
Montana, central and northern Idaho, and northern Nevada. Some of the
downstream thinner density smoke over the North Central and East Central
U.S. and especially over Canada may be long range transport for ongoing
significant fires burning in Siberia-northern Russia.
Western and Northwestern Canada/Alaska/Gulf of Alaska...
A large wildfire burning in northwestern British Columbia continued to
burn though cloud cover over and near the fire did interfere with smoke
detection. As the clouds broke late in the day, thicker smoke was seen
spreading to the southwest from the fire and off the coast of British
Columbia. Thinner density smoke likely from this fire and possibly also
from long range transport from wildfires in Siberia-northern Russia was
noted off the west coast of Canada and up over the Gulf of Alaska as well
as over central and southern British Columbia. Farther to the north,
some smoke from the Russia wildfires was occasionally visible over
central and northern Alaska and northwestern Canada though cloudiness
interfered with smoke detection in satellite imagery.
Bay of Campeche...
A swath of smoke from flaring off of oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche was
seen spreading to the northwest over the Bay of Campeche and toward the
far southwest part of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican coastline.
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