Saturday, September 12, 2020

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z September 13, 2020

SMOKE:
Eastern Pacific/Much of the Lower 48/Northwestern Mexico/Western Gulf
of Mexico/Southern Canada…
The massive area of smoke from the major wildfires burning primarily
in Washington, Oregon, and California continued to be visible over a
huge area stretching from the eastern Pacific well off the West coast
of the U.S. and off the Baja coast eastward and inland over the Western
U.S. and across a good portion of the lower 48 and southern Canada to off
the Northeast U.S. coast. Smoke also affected the western Gulf of Mexico
and northwestern Mexico. The only areas which were relatively smoke free
were parts of the Southeast, Middle Atlantic, and the Northeast, along
with a swath of the Dakotas, western Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. Very
thick smoke was present over portions of the eastern Pacific, much of the
Western U.S. along with the Southwestern and South Central U.S. with a
narrow band of moderate density smoke extending as far to the northeast
as the Great Lakes region. Additional somewhat smaller moderate to thick
density smoke plumes were seen with wildfires scattered around southern
British Columbia, Idaho, western Montana, and northeastern Utah.

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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.