DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1810Z August 21, 2020
SMOKE:
Western and Central U.S./Canada...
A very large plume of thin density covers entire western U.S. except
a small part of the Pacific Northwest. This plume also covers all of
the Great Plains and parts of the Upper Mississippi Valley. The plume
also extends into Canada covering southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and
Manitoba. Most of this smoke is from a number of large and intense
wildfires found across central and northern California.
A moderate density plume is spread over a large part of the Western
U.S. and Rockies. The densest plumes are located over most of
California and Nevada, southeastern Oregon, southern Idaho and Montana,
northern Utah, all of Wyoming, and western South Dakota and Nebraska.
In addition, a thick density plume extends off the central and southern
coast of California to the west-southwest a few hundred miles offshore.
A light to moderate density plume continues further nearly another 1000
miles to the west-southwest over the open waters of the Pacific Ocean.
DUST:
Atlantic Ocean...
A large thin plume of Saharan dust covers most of the tropical Atlantic,
the central part of the subtropical Atlantic, and a small part of the
northeastern Caribbean. This dust surrounds Tropical Storm Laura.
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