DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 20, 2019

SMOKE:
Southwestern U.S...
Wildfires burning primarily in central and northern Arizona were
responsible for a swath of thin density smoke which stretched from
northern and northwestern Arizona to the northeast over south central
and eastern Utah to far west central Colorado. Thicker density smoke
was visible closer to the fires and in the nearby valleys in northern
and central Arizona.

Alaska/Gulf of Alaska...
Cloudiness was impacting smoke detection from satellite imagery over
portions of Alaska and offshore over the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering
Sea though enough breaks in the clouds enabled some smoke to be seen
over central, south central, and western Alaska as well as a portion of
the Bering Sea and the southeastern part of the Gulf of Alaska. Thicker
smoke was present near active wildfires burning in south central Alaska
with the smoke impacting Anchorage.

Canada...
An area of thin density leftover smoke could be seen this morning
over the central and southeast portion of the Northwest Territories,
northeastern Alberta, northern and central Saskatchewan, central Manitoba,
and western and northwestern Ontario. This smoke was possibly due to
long range transport from the recent Siberia wildfire activity.

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

Unless otherwise indicated:

Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.

Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.

A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.

Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.