DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 12, 2020
SMOKE:
Area from Northern California to Eastern Montana and North Dakota...
The Red Salmon Complex in Humboldt County of northwestern California
remains active with rather stagnant moderate to heavy density smoke
seen to the north, east, and south of the fire. A large area of thinner
density smoke associated with this fire was visible stretching from
northern California and southern Oregon northeastward over southern Idaho,
northwestern Wyoming, and much of Montana and North Dakota. In addition,
a wildfire erupted yesterday over southwestern Montana near the border
of Idaho and southeast of Salmon Idaho resulting in a large amount of
smoke. The residual smoke from this fire contributed to the smoke from
the Red Salmon Fire especially over Montana and North Dakota where the
smoke was moderately dense to thick.
Area from the Central Rockies to the Great Lakes Region...
The Pine Gulch and the Grizzly Creek fires in Garfield County continued
to burn and were emitting significant smoke which spread mainly to
the east and northeast from the source. Leftover smoke from these fire
including yesterday’s production of dense pyro-cumulus cloud from the
Pine Gulch Fire was seen across the Central U.S. with thinner density
smoke reaching as far east as the Great Lakes Region. Moderately dense
smoke extended east as far as Iowa and southern Minnesota while thick
smoke covered eastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming, western Nebraska,
and far northwestern Kansas.
Virtually all of Southern Canada/Pacific Northwest/North Central U.S…
An extremely long area of leftover thin to moderate density smoke
attributed primarily to the Siberian wildfires was visible along and
off portions of the Pacific Northwest coast and western Canada with the
smoke extending inland over northwestern Washington and a good portion
of Western Canada and eastward/southeastward from there over virtually
all of southern Canada to off the coast of eastern Quebec. The leading
edge of the smoke also appeared to spread to the southeast and over the
region from northern Minnesota across the northern Great Lakes Region to
far northern New York. In addition, significant smoke was being produced
by wildfires especially over central Ontario which resulted in thicker
embedded smoke over portions of central and southeastern Ontario and
into west central and southern Quebec.
Northwestern Mexico/Southern California/Western Arizona/southern Nevada…
A swath of thin to moderate density leftover smoke was visible this
morning spreading to the north and northeast over southern California,
western and northwestern Arizona, and southern Nevada. The source of
this smoke was believed to be mainly from fires in northwestern Baja,
especially a larger one southeast of Tijuana.
Alaska...
A large area of at least thin to moderate density smoke originating
from Siberian wildfires could be seen over much of northern, western,
and southern Alaska, as well as portions of the Arctic Ocean, the Bering
Sea, and the Gulf of Alaska. Cloud cover and the high latitude limited
information on the extent and density of the smoke from geostationary
satellite imagery.
Northeastern Canada…
A patch of thin to moderate density smoke which was also likely associated
with the Siberian wildfires was seen this morning spreading to the
southeast over Hudson Bay and the northern part of Quebec.
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