DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 22, 2020
SMOKE:
Western and Central U.S./Southwestern and South Central Canada/Western
Gulf of Mexico/Northern and Central Mexico/Pacific off the Coast of
Southern California and Baja…
The enormous mass of smoke attributed mainly to a number of large
wildfires burning in northern and central California along with
some contribution from other wildfires scattered across the Western
U.S. continued to be visible covering virtually all of the Western and
Central U.S. and nosing up across southwestern and south central Canada
and eastward over the western Great Lakes region. The smoke also extended
southward over northern and central Mexico along with the western Gulf
of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche where it merged with smoke spreading
west from the oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche. Smoke also extended very
far to the west and southwest off the coast of southern California and
Baja over the Pacific. Similar to yesterday, the only relatively smoke
free areas of the west were far northwestern California, western Oregon,
and western Washington where onshore flow again kept the smoke farther
to the east. Also similar to yesterday, embedded within this large mass
of smoke was an unusually large area of dense smoke which stretched
from southeastern Washington, central and eastern Oregon, and much of
California eastward over the Rockies to the Plains from the western
Dakotas southward to western Oklahoma and northwestern Texas. While the
most concentrated fire activity producing the thickest smoke was located
in northern and central California, virtually every Western state had
at least some wildfire activity producing individual dense smoke plumes.
DUST:
Caribbean Region/Subtropical Atlantic…
Saharan dust was visible extending from the coast of Africa westward
over the eastern and central subtropical Atlantic. From there, the dust
curved in a more narrow band to the northwest and eventually to the
southwest around the periphery of Tropical Storm Laura. The portion of
the band to the west of Tropical Storm Laura appeared to be moving west
of Puerto Rico and now passing over Hispaniola.
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