Monday, August 3, 2020

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2010Z August 3, 2020

SMOKE:
Western US into Northwest Mexico ...
A large area of light to medium density smoke was observed over southern
California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and into
northwestern states of Mexico.  Some stagnant remnant smoke from ongoing
fire activity was present along with new, slow moving heavy, thick smoke
from active fires in Arizona and southern California.  Smoke was generally
spreading slowly northwest into the Four Corners region.

Additional fire activity in northern California was also producing
a region of far-reaching light density smoke that moved generally
eastward into northern Nevada and southern regions of Idaho and Oregon.
Thick smoke was observed near the immediate area of the fires.

Canada and the North Central United States...
Primarily light density smoke originated from Siberian wildfires continue
to trek eastward through Canada and possibly into the northern United
States. The highest concentrations are found across central-northern
Canada, including northeastern Saskatchewan, central-northern Manitoba,
the Northwestern Territories and Nunavut. Faint signatures of light
density smoke was also portentially stretching from eastern British
Columbia to central Ontario, and into the Dakotas, Minnesota and
Iowa. Smoke signatures in the northern plains were very difficult to
see, and clouds in the central plains obscured visibility of further
smoke transport.

SAHARAN DUST:
An area of light density Saharan dust was observed over the Atlantic
Ocean approximately 500 miles south-southeast of Bermuda.

Levine

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.