DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0015Z Tuesday, September 8, 2020
SMOKE:
Western U.S. into Central U.S…
A large plume originating primarily from wildfires in the western U.S
dominates much of the CONUS west of the Appalachian Mountains with
the exception of northeastern Montana, North Dakota, where relatively
clean air from central Canada prevents smoke from entering those states,
and of southern Texas where air from northern Mexico is also limiting
smoke intrusion. Massive fires in northern Washington, central-northern
California, northeastern Utah and northern Colorado could be observed
emitting thick smoke which covers central-southern-eastern Washington,
northern-central Oregon, almost the entire state of California,
central-southern Nevada, central-southern-eastern Utah, the majority of
Colorado, south-central Kansas, and northern-central Oklahoma. Areas
of moderate smoke extend over much of the mid-west and western U.S.,
and in particular over southern Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, northern Texas,
New Mexico, Arizona, and Baja California. Areas of light smoke extend
further out from the areas above for hundreds of miles. The bulk of the
moderate-to-heavy density smoke is dispersing eastward into the Great
Plains following the general atmospheric flow across that region.
DUST:
Washington/Oregon/Nevada...
A very large area of blowing dust was seen forming off southeastern
Washington where it was mixing with the heavy smoke and moving towards
the southwest into northern-central Oregon. Smaller areas of blowing
dust were also visible off southeastern Oregon and northwestern Nevada
and moving towards the southeast.
WS
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