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