DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1930Z August 22, 2020
SMOKE:
Western and Central U.S./Southwestern and South Central Canada/Gulf of
Mexico/Northern and Central Mexico/Pacific off the Coast of Southern
California and Baja/Central and Northern Plains…
An enormous mass of smoke attributed mainly to a number of large wildfires
burning in northern and central California along with other scattered
wild fire activity throughout the western U.S including but not limited
to Colorado and Oregon covered virtually the entire western and central
U.S. in very thick heavy density smoke. The heavy smoke also made its
way north into south-central Canada and the northern plains and as far
east as the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois and Iowa. Moderate
density smoke extended into Mexico and into the Gulf of Mexico, off the
coast of California and pushed farther into the central plains and Canada.
Light to moderate density smoke was observed extending off of the coast
of central California and moving south as it wrapped into the remains
of Hurricane Genevieve off the coast of Baja. Due to scattered wildfire
activity and associated smoke in the Pacific Northwest, virtually all of
the western U.S. is covered in some form of smoke. Within the area of
heavy density smoke seen extending from wildfires in California through
the Great Plains, an exceptionally heavy region of smoke was observed
near the fires in California with pyrocumulus clouds likely observed
over the area. The exceptionally thick smoke and resulting pyrocumulus
were observed in northern and central California and extending to the
northeast into portions of Oregon and Washington and into Idaho.
DUST:
Caribbean Region/Subtropical Atlantic…
Saharan dust was visible extending from the coast of Africa westward
over the eastern and central subtropical Atlantic. Dust persisted in the
region for a number of days and was observed to be wrapped into tropical
storms Laura and Marco.
JL
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