DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1710Z August 20, 2020
SMOKE:
Western U.S./Southwestern Canada...
A huge area of smoke covers almost all of the western U.S. and parts of
southern British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
The densest smoke is being produced by a number of intense wildfires in
California. A thick, continuous density plume covers most of northern
and central California, northern Nevada, southeastern Oregon, southern
Idaho, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. This continuous thick
density plume also extends to the southwest for a few hundred miles off
the central coast of California, with a light to moderate density plume
extending several hundred miles more to the southwest over the Pacific
Ocean.
A moderate density plume encompasses most of the Rockies and Great
Basin. Two detached thick density plumes are found over parts of
Arizona and New Mexico.
DUST:
A moderate density plume of Saharan dust covers the eastern tropical
Atlantic. A thin density plume covers the rest of the tropical
Atlantic and the central part of the subtropical Atlantic. The plume
surrounds Tropical Depression 13.
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