DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z September 15, 2020
SMOKE: Eastern Pacific/Lower 48/Southern Canada/Northwestern Mexico/Atlantic East of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S… The ongoing large wildfires burning in the Western U.S. was responsible for a continuing extremely big area of smoke which covers portions of the eastern Pacific and much of the lower 48 with the exception of the far Southern and Southeastern U.S. from central and southern Texas eastward to Georgia and Florida. Also, a small sliver of western Washington may be relatively smoke free. The huge mass of smoke also covers southern Canada and offshore of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. and east of the Canadian Maritimes, along with northwestern Mexico. Thick smoke covered an unusually large region stretching from off the Pacific Northwest coast and off the coast of California and Baja eastward and inland over much of the Western U.S. with the thicker smoke also appearing over much of the northern half of the U.S. and southern Canada. DUST: Atlantic… Areas of Saharan dust were visible over portions of the central, south central, and eastern Atlantic. 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