DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 20, 2020
SMOKE:
Area from off the California and Southern Oregon coast extending eastward
and inland to Nebraska…
Satellite imagery this morning showed a large area of mainly thin density
smoke with embedded patches of thicker smoke covering a sizable area
stretching from off the coast of California and southern Oregon inland
over southern Oregon, northern and central California, southern Idaho,
much of Nevada and Utah, southern Wyoming, western and northern Colorado,
and Nebraska. This smoke was due to a number of wildfires which are
primarily located in California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Thicker smoke
was seen closer to and extending well to the south, east, and northeast of
the Hog Fire in Lassen County to the west of Susanville in northeastern
California. A stripe of thicker smoke was also visible extending to the
southeast of the Mineral Fire in west central California. In northern
Nevada, thicker smoke was visible near and to the south of the Cedar Fire.
UNKNOWN AEROSOL:
South Central and Southeastern U.S…
An aerosol of unknown origin and composition was visible this morning
extending from eastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma eastward over
the Ohio Valley, the Tennessee Valley, and portions of the Southeastern
U.S. to off the Mid-Atlantic coast. It is possible that at least some
remnant smoke from fire activity within the region and from the wildfires
in the Western U.S. may be present along with other atmospheric pollutants
trapped under the sprawling ridge of high pressure, but this cannot be
verified in satellite imagery.
DUST:
The only Saharan dust visible this morning was near and west of the
African coast.
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