DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z September 14, 2020
SMOKE:
Eastern Pacific/Much of the Lower 48/Northwestern Mexico/Southern
Canada…
Wildfires in Oregon and California continued to emit huge quantities
of very thick density smoke during the day. Somewhat smaller but still
significant smoke plumes were also visible from wildfires in Washington,
Idaho, western Montana, northeastern Utah, and northern Colorado. The
result of this major wildfire activity occurring now for many days is an
enormous area of smoke which covers a good portion of the eastern Pacific
extending more than 1,500 miles off the West coast as well as much of
the lower 48, southern Canada, and northwestern Mexico. Relatively smoke
free parts of the lower 48 include a sliver encompassing southern Utah,
northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northern
Kansas, northern Missouri, and central Illinois. Also, the area from
southern Texas eastward over much of the Southeast and northward from
there to the Mid-Atlantic appeared to be relatively free of smoke as
well as northern New England. Very dense smoke is blanketing much of
the eastern Pacific, as well as virtually all of California, Oregon, and
Washington. The northern portion of this area of dense smoke extends up
over Western Canada as far east as Manitoba and across the the northern
third of the U.S. reaching as far east as the Great Lakes region. The
southern branch of the dense smoke stretches northeastward from the
Southwestern U.S. and Northwestern Mexico over the Central and South
Central U.S. to as far east as the Ohio Valley.
JS
Earlier This Morning...
DUST:
Atlantic...
A thin Saharan dust plume covers a large part of the eastern tropical
and subtropical Atlantic.
Konon
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