DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z August 19, 2020

SMOKE:
Washington/British Colombia/Alberta/Saskatchewan...
Wildfire clusters over northern Washington and southeastern British
Columbia have moderate to think density plumes spreading out about 100
miles northeast and southwest of the fire locations, with a large thin
density plume that spreads eastward over southern Alberta and
Saskatchewan.

Rockies/Great Basin/California/Oregon...
Many large and intense wildfires have resulted in a thin density plume
covering almost this entire region.  Moderate/thick density plumes can
be found over eastern Utah, western Colorado, and northern New Mexico
from four main wildfires over northwestern Colorado.  Over the western
part of central and northern California, the most intense and widespread
wildfires exist with a moderate density plume spreading northeastward
covering northeastern California, eastern Oregon, and western Idaho.  A
large thick density plume is over most of central California and is also
spreading offshore to the south-southwest for several hundred miles over
the Pacific.


DUST:
Tropical Atlantic...
A very large thin plume of Saharan dust covers most of the tropical
Atlantic.

Konon


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.