DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0332Z September 10, 2020
SMOKE:
As mentioned earlier, the enormous area of incredulously thick smoke
has continued to push off of the Pacific coast and has extended even
further into the Ocean as it begins to wrap into weather patterns
off of the coast. Wind shift due to changing weather regime on land
started to usher the heavier smoke to the south, redirecting the heavy
smoke down the entire state of California, into northern Mexico and
the southwestern states and coming very close to entering a somewhat
smoke-free Nevada. Additional smoke, thinner but still spawning from the
tremendous amount of western fire activity, spread far into the Pacific,
northern Mexico and into the plains. Continued fire activity in Idaho,
Oregon and Washington, which increased throughout the afternoon, added
to the smoke coverage. Areas of heavy density and medium density smoke
covered much of these states as it moved due west. Light smoke was
also observed as far as the northern plains, the Mississippi valley
and into the Ohio valley/mid-Atlantic. This smoke was a combination
of remnant smoke, transported from the western fire activity and smoke
from the widespread fire activity observed across the southeastern U.S.
Concentrated fire activity in a corridor spanning from the Mississippi
valley into the Tennessee valley created a pocket of medium density
smoke with lighter smoke moving with westerly winds into the mid-Atlantic
prior to sunset.
EARLIER TODAY…
SMOKE:
Huge area from the Eastern Pacific to the Atlantic south of Greenland…
An enormous mass of smoke from the ongoing prolific wildfires burning
in the Western U.S. could be seen from off the West Coast inland over
much of the Western U.S. west of the Rockies though much of Montana,
northwestern Wyoming, and eastern Idaho are relatively smoke free. Some
thinner density smoke extended eastward over the North Central U.S. and
over southeastern Canada but cloud cover limited additional information
on the extent and density of the smoke in this region. The smoke then
stretched farther to the east over the Canadian Maritimes and the
Atlantic south of Greenland where it appeared to become moderate in
density outside of the cloud cover. Some of the smoke from the western
wildfires also appeared to be over the Northeastern U.S. and down over
the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions as well as the Middle and Lower
Mississippi Valley, portions of the Southeast, and the northern Gulf
of Mexico. Embedded patches of moderate density smoke stretched from
Indiana and Ohio southward to the central Gulf Coast. Over the Western
U.S., thicker smoke was present over western Oregon, much of California,
northwestern Mexico, the southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico,
and far western Texas. The thicker smoke also spread well to the west
and offshore over the eastern Pacific. Finally, thicker smoke was visible
near wildfires burning in Washington and northern and central Idaho with
some of the smoke being trapped in valley regions.
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